Furious Israelis demand PM Netanyahu resigns over his inaction to save hostages as Israeli military confirm they have found bodies of dead captives inside Gaza
Military authorities say they have discovered the bodies of Hamas prisoners in Gaza – as families gathered outside Israel’s army headquarters and demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Israeli army said on Saturday it had found the bodies of some hostages kidnapped by Hamas during last Saturday’s attack on the country.
“We have found and located some bodies in the perimeter in the Gaza Strip of Israelis who were abducted,” military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner told a media briefing in comments reported by AFP.
The news fueled calls for Netanyahu to resign – families of those kidnapped gathered in the Kirya area of ββTel Aviv to demand that the Israeli government cut a hostage deal with Hamas, or walk.
It follows s Jerusalem Post poll earlier this week that found 86 percent of Israelis believe the attack is a failure of his government, with 56 percent calling for him to resign.
Protesters gathered in the Kirya neighborhood of Tel Aviv to call on Benjamin Netanyahu to resign over his failure to bring home Israeli hostages from Gaza
Families say they feel let down by the government over its inability to rescue the hostages
Demonstrators put up placards with the names and faces of those allegedly kidnapped by Hamas outside the Israel Defense Forces headquarters in the Kirya, Tel Aviv.
A woman holds a placard calling for the return of Liri Elbag, believed to have been taken hostage by Hamas, during Saturday’s protest
Protesters are separated by an Israeli police officer, after allegedly having an argument over the release of hostages from Hamas, during a demonstration on Saturday
A woman holds a sign calling for the Israeli government to negotiate a hostage exchange with Hamas – the government says it will not make any deals with the terror group
Almost all respondents – 94 percent of the 620 Jewish Israelis polled by the newspaper on Thursday, before the news of the hostage deaths – believed the Israeli government bore some responsibility for the attack.
Video footage shared on X, formerly Twitter, showed hundreds of protesters gathering outside Israel’s Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv, calling on Netanyahu to resign.
Among the protesters, local media reported, are believed to be families of unaccounted for hostages.
Another video of the protest, in the Kiriya region of the city, was captioned: ‘Meanwhile in Kiriya…Bibi resigned!’
‘Bibi’ is a common nickname for the Israeli prime minister. The protest continued late Saturday evening.
Several families protesting outside the government building told reporters they wanted to see Netanyahu go.
Monica Levy, who lost family member Mapal Adam (25) in the Hamas attack, tells The Times of Israel: ‘I want Benjamin Netanyahu and all his people to go home because they have failed residents of the south and they are not interested in the lives of residents there and are instead obsessed with petty politics.’
Among the crowd, placards read: ‘Bibi, you have blood on your hands,’ ‘We have been abandoned,’ ‘Send the hostages back immediately’ and ‘There is no trust, stop.’
Ronen Tzur, head of The Families Headquarters – a group representing the families of kidnap victims – told the newspaper separate that the Israeli government would abandon the prisoners if it refused to negotiate with Hamas.
“We are waiting for clarity from the government,” he added.
Other relatives of Israelis captured by Hamas have demanded that the militant group allow medicine to hostages who need it, saying their loved ones are suffering.
The protest continued into Saturday night as family members of those kidnapped by Hamas called on the Israeli government to do more to bring back their loved ones
An Israeli protester holds a sign calling for the government to negotiate a release deal for Hamas hostages in Tel Aviv on Saturday.
Some protesters called on Hamas to release younger and more vulnerable prisoners, or to allow the transport of medicine to those in need of care
People hug as others look at photos of Hamas kidnapping victims on a wall outside the Israeli Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv
A protester with a painted message reading ‘bring us back’ looks at photos of Hamas kidnap victims at the site of the anti-Netanyahu protest
‘Every day without her medication is torture. She is being tortured,” said Yifat Zailer, who said her kidnapped 63-year-old aunt has Parkinson’s disease.
Hamas and other Palestinian militants hope to trade the hostages for thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi told reporters earlier that the country was not in a position to negotiate an agreement.
“There is no way to negotiate with an enemy we swore to exterminate,” he said.
The group claimed Israel’s airstrikes had killed nine hostages in the past 24 hours.
A statement from Al Qassam Brigades on its Telegram channel said the prisoners were killed ‘as a result of the Zionist bombing of the areas in which they were staying’.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Saturday that Israel had so far identified 126 prisoners.
Their plight becomes more complicated as Israel continues its bombardment of Gaza – and prepares to launch a major ground invasion into the occupied territory.
Israel has carried out ‘localized’ raids inside Gaza Strip to, it says, gather information on hostages and fight insurgents; IDF spokesman, Lt. col. Lerner, said the bodies of hostages were found during these ‘small, close-perimeter raids in the Gaza Strip’.
Hamas has threatened to kill hostages every time Israel launches a retaliatory airstrike; the country has been engaged in an almost constant bombardment of the occupied territory since last Saturday’s attack.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with soldiers on the border with Gaza earlier Saturday ahead of an expected ground attack by Israeli forces
Israeli heavy armored vehicles and tanks marched together at Sderot, Israel, near the border with Gaza
A stern-looking Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wearing a flak jacket, visited troops on the border earlier, raising expectations of an imminent invasion.
‘Are you ready for what’s coming? More coming,’ he is heard telling several soldiers on a video released by his office. He later held security talks with ministers in his emergency government.
But the Israeli prime minister’s right-wing government prides itself on its security-heavy, protectionist policies – undermined by the fact that its intelligence services were caught off guard by the Hamas terror attack.
Israel bombed Gaza last week in response to a bloody Hamas attack across the border that killed more than 1,300 Israelis.
To date, more than 2,200 Palestinians have been killed in the retaliatory attacks, according to Gazan health officials.