Thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv and other cities in the country on Sunday evening in the largest protests since October 7, expressing pain and anger and demanding a hostage-ceasefire deal after the army recovered six bodies of hostages executed by the Hamas terror group.
Thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv and other cities in the country on Sunday evening in the largest protests since October 7, expressing pain and anger and demanding a hostage-ceasefire deal after the army recovered six bodies of hostages executed by the Hamas terror group.
As frustration mounted, crowds estimated by Israeli media to number up to 500,000 strong demonstrated in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and other cities, demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu do more to bring home the remaining 101 hostages, about a third of whom Israeli officials estimate have died.
Police used stun grenades and water cannons to disperse demonstrators who flooded the streets of Tel Aviv, demanding an immediate deal to free Israeli captives held in the Gaza Strip, local media reported.
Police took to spraying Israeli protesters with "skunk" water, a crowd control weapon mixed with noxious and foul-smelling chemicals which has traditionally been used to suppress Palestinian demonstrators, media highlighted.
: Police are using stun grenades and water cannons to disperse demonstrators who have flooded the streets of Tel Aviv demanding an immediate deal to free Israeli captives held in the Gaza Strip, local media reported.
Police in the country have recently taken to spraying… pic.twitter.com/Z6dlBMNIml
In Jerusalem, protesters blocked streets and demonstrated outside the Prime Minister's residence. Aerial footage showed Tel Aviv's main highway filled with protesters holding flags with pictures of the slain hostages.
Protest turns violent as hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers demonstrate against the Israeli regime in Tel Aviv, demanding an immediate resignation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu along with the release of the Israeli captives. … pic.twitter.com/jGcCEvCEnk
— upuknews (@upuknews1)Israeli television footage showed police directing water canons at demonstrators who had blocked roads.
: At least 700,000 people have taken part in protests across Israel calling for a ceasefire and hostage deal, with an estimated 550,000 of them in Tel Aviv.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters surged onto the streets of Tel Aviv on Sunday as anger mounted after the… pic.twitter.com/5wPrmwuYKe
At least 29 arrests were made, local media reported.
: Police arrested 29 people during Tel Aviv protests
Israeli police say they have arrested 29 people during mass protests in Tel Aviv, accusing them of vandalism, disorderly conduct and attacking officers. pic.twitter.com/QU4FI4qcXi
The Tel Aviv protest began with a march from Dizengoff Street to the Begin Gate of the IDF headquarters, carrying six “symbolic coffins” to symbolize the six bodies that were recovered on Saturday night, Times of Israel reported.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recovered the bodies of six Israeli hostages from a Hamas tunnel in Rafah, located in the southern Gaza Strip. The hostages, identified as Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Ori Danino, 25, Alex Lubnov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Almog Sarusi, 25, were reportedly murdered by their captors shortly before being found by Israeli troops.