April 6: Protesters demand Histadrut declare strike to pressure gov&#8217;t into hostage deal

Explosive devices and material found by troops in southern Gaza Khan Younis, in an image published April 6, 2024 (Israel Defense Forces)

Troops of the Givati Brigade operating in the al-Amal neighborhood of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip located and destroyed a weapons depot, the IDF says.

According to the IDF, more than 40 explosive devices and a ton of explosive material were found at the site.

The Givati troops have killed numerous Hamas gunmen in the al-Amal area in recent days, the IDF adds.

12:21 pm

Former British PM Johnson dismisses UK calls for arms embargo on Israel as ‘insane’

Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson slams recent calls for an arm embargo on Israel by British lawmakers and former Supreme Court justices as “insane,” in a column in The Daily Mail.

“It’s not the hypocrisy I mind. It’s the implication: that good, clever, kindly people in this country are actually willing to take away, from Israel, its means of defending its citizens against Hamas,” he writes, adding that the Palestinian terror group actively uses “the death and suffering of their own citizens, maximizing their pain and grief so as to rally international opinion against Israel — and we are falling for it.”

In a video accompanying the Daily Mail column, Johnson says that while he is “appalled” by the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza amid the ongoing war, but doesn’t believe it should “end in a victory for Hamas.”

Historically a strong proponent for Israel and for the UK Jewish community, Johnson describes as “contagion” the claim that the UK government is obligated under international law to impose an arms embargo on Israel because of alleged war crimes during its ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.

He also singles out British foreign minister David Cameron to put a stop to any government involvement in the push for an arms embargo.

“If you want evidence of government madness, it appears that Foreign Office lawyers are busily canvassing the idea — which has not, as far as I can tell, yet been rejected by the Foreign Secretary himself. He seems to have gone into a kind of purdah on the subject,” Johnson writes.

Purdah is a religious practice of female seclusion in Muslim and Hindu communities, but the term is also used in the UK for the period between the announcement of an election and the formation of a new government. During that period civil servants are prevented from making moves that could be interpreted as politically motivated.

“We are being asked to shun the Israelis, to mount a total moral repudiation of Israel — when that country has only recently suffered the biggest and most horrifying massacre of Jewish people since World War II; and when 130 hostages, including, for heaven’s sake, a baby, are being kept in dungeons in Gaza by their jihadi captors; and when the release of those hostages, it cannot be stated too often, would mean the immediate withdrawal of the Israeli Defense Forces and the end of the conflict,” he adds.

Johnson, who resigned as British prime minister in July 2022, visited Israel in November last year and toured southern Israeli border towns devastated by Hamas’s October 7 massacre.

12:38 pm

Rocket alert sirens are sounding in northern town of Shlomi

Missile alert sirens are sounding in the northern town of Shlomi near the Lebanon border, warning of incoming rocket fire.

Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there.

Red Alert [12:35:07] – 1 Alert:

• Confrontation Line — Shlomi#Israel #RocketAlert #RedAlert pic.twitter.com/4WWdh8RKgz

— ILRedAlert (@ILRedAlert) April 6, 2024

1:06 pm

Hostage Elad Katzir from Kibbutz Nir Oz murdered in Hamas captivity, body returned to Israel

Elad Katzir before he was kidnapped by terrorists on October 7, 2023. His body was extracted from Gaza in an IDF raid on April 5, 2024 after he was murdered in captivity by Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists. (Facebook)

Carmit Palty Katzir, the sister of Elad Katzir who was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7, announces that her family has been notified that her brother was murdered in captivity.

In a post on Facebook, she writes that his body was extracted from the Gaza Strip in a daring raid and returned to Israel and will be buried on Kibbutz Nir Oz.

“Elad was brought to Israel last night, after being murdered in captivity,” she writes, adding that the Israel Defense Forces spokesperson will announce the “brave rescue operation.”

“The IDF spokesman will not tell you that the prime minister, the cabinet and the IDF have no idea where most of the hostages, alive and murdered, are held. He won’t tell you either that they have no way to protect the hostages, even when they know where they are,” she adds in the post, claiming that her brother “could have been saved if a deal would have happened on time.”

Addressing the “cowardly” government, she says, “Look at yourselves in the mirror and see if your hands didn’t spill that blood. You have 133 more hostages to redeem, worlds to save.”

Katzir’s mother, Hanna Katzir, was also kidnapped from her home on Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7. She released on November 24 as part of a temporary ceasefire deal brokered by Qatar and the United States between Hamas and Israel. His father Rami Katzir was murdered during the massacre.

1:16 pm

IDF confirms extraction of Elad Katzir’s body, says he was murdered by Palestinian Islamic Jihad in captivity

The IDF confirms that the body of hostage Elad Katzir was retrieved from the Khan Younis area in the southern Gaza Strip overnight.

The IDF says that according to its intelligence, Katzir was “murdered in captivity by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.”

The operation to recover the body was carried out by the Commando Brigade, following intelligence provided by the Shin Bet security agency and the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate.

“Following an identification procedure carried out overnight by medical officials at the National Center of Forensic Medicine, IDF and Shin Bet representatives informed the family of the late Elad Katzir about the recovery of his body,” the military says.

The IDF and Shin Bet say they “express their deepest condolences to the family.”

Katzir was abducted by Islamic Jihad from Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Hamas-led October 7 onslaught.

In December, Islamic Jihad published a propaganda video showing Katzir and another hostage, Gadi Mozes, alive.

A second video with Katzir was published in early January.

1:36 pm

Senior Hamas operative killed in Gaza airstrike this week — IDF, Shin Bet

Akram Abd al-Rahman Husein Salama, in an undated photo published by the IDF on April 6, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

A senior Hamas operative in the terror group’s internal security was killed in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip earlier this week, the IDF and Shin Bet announce.

Akram Abd al-Rahman Husein Salama, who the IDF and Shin Bet say held “several key positions” in Hamas, including the deputy head of internal security in Khan Younis, was killed in a fighter jet strike in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday.

The joint announcement says Salama “was involved in the advancing major terror operations in the Gaza Strip, with the aim of harming the activities of the IDF, and was responsible for the planning and execution of significant terror attacks in Israel.”

2:08 pm

Report: Hamas delegation heads to Cairo to continue Gaza truce talks on Egypt’s request

A Hamas delegation will head to Cairo tomorrow to discuss developments in efforts to secure a ceasefire in the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip on the request of Egypt, according to a senior source from the terror group quoted by Al Jazeera.

The source is quoted as describing “intensive” talks between Ismail Haniyeh and the Egyptian mediators over the past few hours, during which the Qatar-based Hamas leader reiterated the terror group’s insistence on the unrestricted return of Palestinians to northern Gaza and a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of IDF troops from the Strip as conditions for any hostage release — demands Israel has repeatedly rejected as delusional.

It is believed that 129 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released prior to that.

Three hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 12 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military.

2:13 pm

Rocket alert sirens sounding again in northern border towns

Missile alert sirens are sounding again in northern communities near the border with Lebanon.

Sirens are sounding in the largely evacuated towns of Even Menachem, Netua, Shtula, Zarit, and Shomera.

Red Alert [14:09:56] – 5 Alerts:

• Confrontation Line — Even Menachem, Netua, Shtula, Zarit, Shomera#Israel #RocketAlert #RedAlert pic.twitter.com/4qJbVbTgxK

— ILRedAlert (@ILRedAlert) April 6, 2024

2:24 pm

Hamas-run health ministry says death toll at least 33,137 in Gaza war

By Agencies and ToI Staff

At least 33,137 Palestinians have been killed and 75,815 wounded in Gaza since October 7, the Hamas-run health ministry says in a statement.

Figures issued by the terror group cannot be independently verified, and are believed to include both civilians and Hamas members killed in Gaza, including from the terror group’s own rocket misfires.

The IDF says it has killed over 13,000 operatives in Gaza, in addition to some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.

2:50 pm

IDF: Hostage Elad Katzir was likely murdered in January, body was buried in Gaza

The IDF estimates that Elad Katzir was murdered by his captors in mid-January, not long after the Palestinian Islamic Jihad published a second video showing him in captivity.

Katzir was buried in the Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza, at a site used by terror operatives.

Information on the grave was obtained around a week ago, with final confirmation on the location being received last night.

Within a few hours, troops of the Maglan and Egoz commando units reached the site, exhumed the body, and brought it back to Israel for identification.

There were no injuries amid the operation, with no fighting taking place at the grave site itself, only in the surrounding area.

2:52 pm

Turkey detains 48 people with suspected ties to Islamic State, minister says

By Reuters

Authorities in Turkey have detained 48 people, who are suspected of having ties to the Islamic State, in connection with a shooting at an Istanbul church in January, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya writes on X, formerly Twitter.

One Turkish citizen was killed by two ISIS gunmen at the Italian Santa Maria Catholic Church in Istanbul in January.

Yerlikaya shares a video of the suspects in detention in his post on X.

İstanbul’da Santa Maria Kilisesinde meydana gelen silahlı saldırı olayının failleri ile bağlantılı ve çatışma bölgeleriyle irtibatlı olan şahıslar başta olmak üzere DEAŞ Terör Örgütüne yönelik düzenlenen “BOZDOĞAN-21” operasyonlarında 4️⃣8️⃣ şüpheli yakalandı❗

Aziz Milletimizin… pic.twitter.com/ejtrUMwvDO

— Ali Yerlikaya (@AliYerlikaya) April 6, 2024

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

3:07 pm

Hamas reiterates refusal to ‘back down’ from demands for full ceasefire in Gaza

By Agencies and ToI Staff

File - Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official, speaks during a press conference in Gaza City, November 27, 2017. (Adel Hana/AP)

Hamas refuses to “back down” from its demands for a full ceasefire, but agrees to send a delegation for renewed talks in Cairo over the weekend.

“Hamas confirms its adherence to the position it presented on March 14 … and we will not back down from this position,” the terror group says in a statement, referring to its demands which include a complete ceasefire in Gaza and the withdrawal of all Israel Defense Forces from the Strip.

Reuters reports that the Hamas delegation will be headed by the terror group’s deputy chief in Gaza, Khalil Al-Hayya.

3:44 pm

IDF strikes Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon amid ongoing fire on northern Israel

The IDF says it carried out airstrikes on Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon’s Ayta ash-Shab, Arnoun and Tayr Harfa a short while ago, amid repeated attacks by the terror group on northern Israel.

Troops also shelled areas near Aalma ash-Shab, with artillery to “remove threats,” the IDF adds.

Five rockets were fired overnight from Lebanon at the Shtula area, and over the past few hours, more projectiles were launched at other areas in northern Israel, with no reports of injuries.

The IDF says it also shelled the launch sites.

The IDF says it carried out airstrikes on Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon's Ayta ash-Shab, Arnoun, and Tayr Harfa a short while ago, amid repeated attacks by the terror group on norther Israel.

Troops also shelled areas near Aalma ash-Shab with artillery to "remove… pic.twitter.com/9dcRaVLizF

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) April 6, 2024

3:57 pm

Rocket alert sirens sounding for third time today in northern border towns

Rocket alert sirens are sounding in northern communities near the border with Lebanon for the third time this afternoon.

Sirens sound in the largely evacuated towns of Eilon, Idmit, Arab al-Aramshe and Goren.

The sirens come shortly after the IDF announced that it had carried out airstrikes on Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon’s Ayta ash-Shab, Arnoun and Tayr Harfa a short while ago, amid the repeated attacks by the terror group on northern Israel.

Red Alert [15:48:52] – 4 Alerts:

• Confrontation Line — Eilon, Idmit, Arab al-Aramshe, Goren#Israel #RocketAlert #RedAlert pic.twitter.com/NDbnaa5BSK

— ILRedAlert (@ILRedAlert) April 6, 2024

4:16 pm

Missile sirens sounding in north for second time in less than an hour

Rocket alert sirens are sounding in northern border communities, warning of the second barrage of incoming missiles from Lebanon in less than an hour.

Sirens are now sounding in largely evacuated northern towns including Sdeh Nechemia, Amir, Beit Hillel, Shear Yeshuv, Kfar Szold, HaGoshrim and Dafna.

Red Alert [16:10:17] – 7 Alerts:

• Confrontation Line — Dafna, Sdeh Nechemia, Amir, Kfar Szold, Shear Yeshuv, HaGoshrim, Beit Hillel#Israel #RocketAlert #RedAlert pic.twitter.com/QTZNSesVaS

— ILRedAlert (@ILRedAlert) April 6, 2024

4:25 pm

UN aid chief decries ‘shameful man-made famine’ in Gaza

By Agencies and ToI Staff

The United Nations’ under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, Martin Griffiths, decries the war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 massacre, as a “betrayal of humanity.”

In a statement on the eve of the six-month anniversary of the war, the outgoing humanitarian official calls for a “collective determination that there be a reckoning for this betrayal of humanity.”

“For the people of Gaza, the past six months of war have brought death, devastation and now the immediate prospect of a shameful man-made famine,” he says.

“For the people affected by the lasting horror of the October 7 attacks, it has been six months of grief and torment,” he adds.

The end of this war is so long overdue.

It is not enough for six months of war to be a moment of remembrance and mourning.

It must also spur a collective determination that there be a reckoning for this betrayal of humanity. pic.twitter.com/p8TMxu0mf1

— Tom Fletcher (@UNReliefChief) April 6, 2024

The war in Gaza erupted after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 253 hostages, mostly civilians, many amid horrific acts of brutality and sexual assault.

5:01 pm

Senior UN official: Israel also approved reopening of 20 bakeries, waterline in northern Gaza

A Palestinian man ferries water at a makeshift camp for displaced people in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on April 4, 2024 (Mohammed Abed/AFP)

A statement from a senior United Nations official lists what he calls “commitments” by Israel as part of a series of steps to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, including opening the Erez Crossing to the northern Strip for the first time since October 7 and increasing the number of trucks entering via Jordan from the Allenby Bridge crossing.

The UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Gaza and the West Bank, Jamie McGoldrick, also says “better functioning coordination cell will be established that links humanitarians directly with the IDF Southern Command.”

While most of the step details in McGoldrick’s statement were announced by the Prime Minister’s Office early yesterday morning, he expands on the details of the approvals, which he says came “in response to our repeated requests.”

In addition to expanding border crossing operating hours and capacity, the UN official says Israel has approved the activation of 20 bakeries and the reopening of the Nahal Oz waterline in northern Gaza.

The statement says the number of trucks allowed to pass through from Jordan will be increased from 25 to at least 50 per day, while an additional 100 trucks per day will be scanned via the Kerem Shalom and Nitsana crossings in the south of the Strip.

“As I have stated previously, the humanitarian community is prepared to scale-up assistance in Gaza, but this requires better security, greater access, and more reliable facilitation from Israeli authorities,” he says in the statement.

“We stand ready to work with all parties to alleviate the suffering of people in Gaza.”

5:16 pm

Jerusalem police detain Palestinian teen planning to carry out terror stabbing attack in Old City

A knife found concealed on the body of a Palestinian terror suspect, 17, near the Old City of Jerusalem, April 6, 2024. (Israel Police)

Security forces have arrested a Palestinian teenager planning to carry out a terror stabbing attack in Jerusalem, according to a police statement.

The suspect, a 17-year-old resident of Birzeit in the West Bank, was detained for questioning near the Damascus Gate entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem after officers noticed suspicious behavior, the statement says.

Police said they discovered a large knife taped to his body during a search.

The police statement adds that the suspect had posted a jihadist statement on Facebook earlier in the day, strengthening suspicions that he had intended to carry out a terror attack.

The suspect, who was in Israel illegally, has been detained for questioning.

5:48 pm

Syrian state media says 7 children killed by explosive device in southern Daraa province

By AFP

DAMASCUS, Syria — Seven children were killed in southern Syria’s Daraa province when an “explosive device” detonated, state media reports.

“Seven children” were killed “and two other people were injured, one of them a woman, when an explosive device planted by terrorists” went off in the city of Sanamayn, state news agency SANA reports, quoting a police source.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor gives a different toll, saying that “eight children of different ages were killed and another was wounded” in the blast.

The Britain-based monitor says militias were accused of planting the device in order to target an unidentified person in the area.

Daraa was the cradle of the 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule but it was returned to government control in 2018 under a ceasefire deal backed by Russia.

The province has since been plagued by killings, clashes and dire living conditions.

Syria’s war, which escalated into a deadly conflict that pulled in jihadists and foreign armies, has killed more than 507,000 people, displaced millions and battered the country’s infrastructure and industry.

6:03 pm

Three-year-old in critical condition after being locked in car for several hours

Illustrative: Assuta Medical Center in Ashdod. (Screen capture/YouTube)

A three-year-old child is in critical condition after being left in a car for several hours in Ashdod, medics say.

Paramedics who were called to the scene pulled the child from the closed vehicle, who had lost consciousness and appeared to be suffering from heat stroke, a Magen David Adom ambulance service statement says.

The child was taken by the medics to Assuta Medical Center, the statement reads.

Details of the whereabouts of the child’s guardian remain unknown.

6:11 pm

30-year-old man killed by boat propeller at Sea of Galilee

A 30-year-old man was killed after being hit by a boat propeller at the Sea of Galilee, medics say.

A paramedic who was called to the scene says responders found the man on the shore with several serious injuries and without vital signs, according to a Magen David Adom ambulance service statement.

They were forced to declare him dead at the scene, the medic says.

It was unclear how exactly the man was first hurt by the propeller.

6:32 pm

200 protesters in Rehovot call for hostage deal, new elections

In a photo released by anti-government activists, protesters call for a hostage deal and immediate elections in Rehovot, April 6, 2024. (Ori Koren)

Some 200 protesters in the central city of Rehovot are demanding a deal for the release of hostages and immediate elections, the Ynet news site reports.

Numerous protests are planned across the country for Saturday night marking six months since the captives were abducted to Gaza during the October 7 Hamas massacre.

The past week has seen an increasing convergence between the protests of the families and the mass anti-government demonstrations that were a weekly event in the months before October 7. Some of the families are accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of blocking a deal for political reasons.

“Six months where 134 women and men are being abused, starved and raped daily, half a year of criminal abandonment by Netanyahu and all the partners in his cabinet and government who are not doing anything to remove the obstacles from a [hostage] deal,” organizers said in a statement.

6:48 pm

Netanyahu ‘stands between us and our loved ones,’ hostage’s mother says at start of tonight’s protests

Members of the Mozes, Metzger, Calderon, Sangauker, Elgarat, and Monder families of hostages deliver a statement to the press in front of the Begin Gate at the Kirya IDF Military Headquarters in Tel Aviv on April 6, 2024. Einav Zangauker is at center. (Adar Eyal / Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

Relatives of several hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza say that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “stands between us and our loved ones.”

They are speaking at a press conference outside the Kiriya military headquarters, ahead of tonight’s protests, in Tel Aviv.

Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan Zangauker is held captive, says that polling shows most of the public believes Netanyahu is delaying an agreement with Hamas due to “political considerations” and urges members of the coalition “who have a conscience, please help us.”

She says that members of the ruling Likud party who have spoken to the hostages’ families have said they don’t understand why the prime minister surrendered to the hardline demands of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose positions “are abandoning the hostages.”

“Netanyahu is failing the deal on purpose and he is standing between us and our loved ones in Gaza. The hostages don’t have time for elections and to wait, the obstacle to the deal must be removed now and Netanyahu replaced immediately,” she says.

7:24 pm

Protests in Haifa, Caesarea kick off Saturday night rallies

In a photo released by anti-government activists, protesters march in Haifa calling for elections now, April 6, 2024. (Eilat Markovitch)

Several hundred people march through Haifa holding signs, calling for new elections in one of the first of dozens of protest actions against the government on Saturday.

Hundreds more chant “you are guilty” near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea.

In the march from Carmel Center to Horev Center in Haifa’s western mountaintop neighborhood, several participants hold a banner reading “SOS Elections,” as others wave signs with the second and 16th letters of the Hebrew alphabet, which form the acronym for “elections now.” Rallies are also planned to take place in Sderot, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Slogans and signs at the march criticize the government on a range of issues, including the handling of the war with Hamas, the fact that hostages have not been retrieved and the problems facing evacuees from the north.

Carmit Palty Katzir, a resident of Haifa and past participant in the protests, blames the government for the death of her brother Elad, who was murdered by Hamas terrorists in Gaza and whose body was retrieved from Gaza over the weekend. The People’s Protest, a Haifa group behind the march, publishes Palty Katzir’s statement on Facebook just ahead of the march.

“The Prime Minister, members of the War Cabinet, and members of the coalition, look at yourselves in the mirror, and ask yourselves whether it was not your hand that spilled that blood. You still have 133 hostages to redeem—worlds to save,” she writes.

צעדה חיפה, התחלנו!@GalNoyman1 @adin_dan @RoniNeumann @RotemPF pic.twitter.com/52fqzC2Lfa

— מחאת העם חיפה (@haifaprotest) April 6, 2024

7:41 pm

Lapid: Future leaders may not be able to undo ‘collapse’ of relations with US, which could have been avoided

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid says that an ongoing “collapse” in relations with the United States leaves a question if it can even be fully repaired by future governments.

Speaking to Channel 12’s Meet the Press, he says the rift could have been prevented, and notes that some of Israel’s fiercest allies have even joined in the criticism, such as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who spoke out against Israel’s conduct in the war and called for early elections. Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi also joined the call among Democrats to halt arms sales to Israel.

Lapid says that arguments with the US should be held in “closed-door” conversations. “In front of cameras, don’t have these arguments,” he says.

US officials have become increasingly outspoken about their frustration with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the ongoing war, criticizing the mounting civilian death toll, the spiraling humanitarian crisis in the Strip, and a lack of “day after” the war plan.

In turn, Netanyahu and some ministers have aired their disputes with the US through media outlets.

Lapid stresses that a deal is possible to return hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, but that Netanyahu has delayed it over political considerations, and that “the government isn’t handling anything,” accusing it of failing to deal with issues facing the country.

He says that Netanyahu “fears” that his government would collapse if he signs a deal.

7:51 pm

Thousands of demonstrators gather in Tel Aviv’s Democracy Square, calling for hostage deal, new elections

Demonstrators gather in Tel Aviv to protest against the government and call for early elections and a deal to release hostages held by Hamas, April 6, 2024 (Iddo Schejter / Times of Israel)

Demonstrators are gathering at Democracy Square in Tel Aviv to protest against the government, call for early elections and demand Israel agree to a deal to release hostages held by Hamas.

As thousands of protesters congregate, with many carrying Israeli flags and various signs with anti-government slogans, police barricade parts of Begin Street and Kaplan Street, as well as nearby exits of the Ayalon Highway to prevent demonstrators from blocking the road, as they do weekly.

Demonstrators on Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv protest against the government and call for early elections and a deal to release hostages held by Hamas, April 6, 2024 (Yair Palti / Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

Because a large turnout is expected, for the first time since the war began, the demonstration is being held at the intersection of Kaplan and Begin Streets where the anti-judicial overhaul protests were held every Saturday night last year prior to October 7, leading Tel Aviv City Hall to rename the junction Democracy Square.

Weekly protests against the government’s proposed judicial overhaul ended abruptly when the war broke following Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, but were revived about two months ago as a movement calling for early elections took off. Until tonight, demonstrations were held at the Kirya military headquarters’ south entrance on Kaplan Street, about 400 meters from Democracy Square.

7:55 pm

Former Mossad head Danny Yatom accuses Netanyahu of preventing hostages’ return

Ex-Mossad chief Danny Yatom (photo credit: Olivier Fitoussi /Flash90)

Former Mossad head Danny Yatom and an ex-chief of the IDF’s Ground Forces Command accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of preventing the return of hostages from Gaza during a protest near Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea.

“You ruined our unity, which was the only chance for success,” Yatom, a former Labor lawmaker, says at the weekly rally. “If you have a shred of patriotism, resign,” says Yatom. One of hundreds of protesters gathered in Caesarea shouts: “He will not resign, but we will throw him out!” Yatom replies: “Amen.”

The next speaker is Guy Tzur, who is a reserves major general and former chief of the Ground Forces Command of the Israel Defense Forces. He accuses Netanyahu of “crashing Israel down on its people.” The blood of the hostages in Gaza is “on your hands” he says, addressing Netanyahu.

Tzur also accuses Netanyahu of “starting a conflict with the United States and the world,” which he says is “giving a huge gift to Iran and Hezbollah.”

Hundreds of people begin marching from the rallying point of the protest toward the home of Netanyahu as they chant slogans against his government.

8:02 pm

Protesters flank police barricades in Caesarea, reaching within 200 yards of Netanyahu’s home

Hundreds of anti-government protesters flank police barricades in Caesarea, prompting police to scramble and reposition barriers meant to block them from reaching the private residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The marchers reached the barricades from the east instead of the west, as they had done in previous protest rallies in Caesarea in recent weeks, says a spokesperson from Moked Caesarea, the name of the group coordinating protests in the town of some 6,000 residents near Netanya.

Chanting slogans such as “you are guilty” and “resign,” the protesters stop short of approaching the barricades themselves, pausing behind some fencing that police had set up around the barricade perimeter.

Moked Caesarea on Facebook says they are within roughly 200 yards of the residence, 600 yards closer than in previous weeks.

8:07 pm

Three-year-old boy dies after being locked in car in Ashdod

A three-year-old child has died after being left in a car for several hours earlier today, Hebrew media outlets report.

Paramedics who pulled the child from the closed vehicle in Ashdod said earlier this afternoon that he was in critical condition, having lost consciousness, and he appeared to be suffering from heatstroke.

The details of his guardian’s whereabouts were unknown, and according to Ynet, he was discovered in a car that didn’t belong to his parents.

8:34 pm

Commemorating six months since October 7, Herzog says Israel is ‘obligated’ to free the hostages

President Issac Herzog speaks during a state ceremony for fallen Israeli soldiers whose burial place is unknown at Mount Herzl Military cemetery in Jerusalem on March 17, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

In a statement commemorating the six-month anniversary of the October 7 Hamas massacre in southern Israel, President Isaac Herzog says Israel is obligated “to do everything, creatively, persistently with determination,” in its power to secure the release of the hostages still held in Gaza.

“Tomorrow at 6:29 a.m., we will mark six months since the brutal terrorist attack and the terrible massacre,” he writes, referring to the exact time that Hamas began firing rockets into Israel on the morning of October 7.

“Half a year since the crime against our sisters and brothers, against our country, against humanity,” he continues, calling the war against Hamas “heavy in days and heavy in blood.”

Recounting the events of the last half a year, Herzog writes that “despite the pain and upheaval, I am full of hope and believe in us.”

“For half a year, I have seen Israeli society in all its glory…half a year, and every day I feel anew immense pride to be part of this nation.”

“It’s hard to know what challenges we still face,” he adds. “But despite the long and difficult road, I look at you, citizens of Israel, and know — we will be restored, and healed and rebuilt — and we will put up mezuzahs, and we will plant, and we will reap with joy what we have sown with tears, and we will prove to the whole world: The people of Israel live!”

8:46 pm

Protest organizers say 100,000 in attendance at Tel Aviv protests marking six months since Oct. 7

Demonstrators on Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv protest against the government and call for early elections and a deal to release hostages held by Hamas, April 6, 2024 (Yair Palti / Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

Organizers of tonight’s anti-government protests in Tel Aviv say that 100,000 are participating in demonstrations centered at the junction of Kaplan and Begin streets, in the so-called Democracy Square.

The protests, calling for a deal to release the hostages and for new elections, are taking place at 50 other locations nationwide, the organizers say, as Israel marks six months since Hamas’s October 7 attack and the start of the war.

8:51 pm

Former Shin Bet head Ami Ayalon calls for Saudi-brokered peace talks with Palestinians

Former Shin Bet head Ami Ayalon attends an emergency conference for Israel's security, as they protest the government's proposed judicial overhaul, on March 27, 2023. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Ami Ayalon, a former head of the General Security Agency, or Shin Bet, and a major general in the reserves and ex-chief of the Israeli Navy, calls for Saudi-brokered talks with Palestinian officials on the future of the Gaza Strip.

Ayalon, also a former politician for Labor, says this scenario would “not mean surrender, as it’s the only way to preserve a Jewish democratic Israel,” in a speech he delivers in Haifa at an anti-government rally Saturday night.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “has made a disastrous decision not even to debate or consider the day after” the current war with Hamas in Gaza,” says Ayalon at Horev Center, a mountaintop area in the city’s south. “Without a diplomatic goal, the fighting is endless and pointless,” he adds.

Thousands of people attend the rally in Haifa, in which police close a main traffic artery connecting Horev to the Carmel Center area to allow demonstrators to march.

Addressing Netanyahu, Ayalon says the protest movement will “find you wherever you are, at your residences in Caesarea and Jerusalem, at your vacation destinations and in meeting with the world leaders who will still tolerate your presence.”

8:52 pm

IDF says it blew up Hamas tunnel in Khan Younis that entered Israeli territory by several hundred meters

The IDF says it located and destroyed three major Hamas attack tunnels in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza — including one that entered Israeli territory — that it says had been under Israeli surveillance in recent years.

One of the tunnels was first uncovered a decade ago, and during the 2021 Gaza war, it was targeted in an airstrike, killing several Hamas operatives, the IDF says.

At the beginning of the ongoing war, the same tunnel was struck at a number of locations, preventing it from being used. It was blown up within the past few weeks, according to the IDF.

The second tunnel was first uncovered in 2014, and at the time it had crossed into Israeli territory and was later destroyed. The IDF says Hamas did not work to fix the tunnel, and in recent weeks, another section of the underground passage, deeper inside Gaza, was blown up.

The third tunnel was first found in 2019, before the underground Gaza border barrier was constructed, according to the IDF. One branch of the tunnel entered Israeli territory by several hundred meters, and it remained under surveillance and control since, the IDF says.

“Sensors and explosives were placed in [the tunnel] in order to be used by the IDF if needed, as part of a special operation against the underground network of the Hamas terror organization,” the military says.

The IDF says that the tunnel was struck numerous times amid the war, alongside other operations to render the section that entered Israeli territory inoperable.

The rest of the tunnel was blown up in recent weeks.

According to the IDF, the tunnel was not used by Hamas during the October 7 onslaught and remained under heavy surveillance amid the war.

The IDF has for years claimed that no tunnels entered Israeli territory since the construction of its underground barrier, completed in 2021.

9:11 pm

In TA, founding Kibbutz Holit member says she’ll never forgive government for Oct. 7 failures

Anat Gilor, a founding member of Kibbutz Holit which was attacked by Hamas on October 7, speaks at the weekly demonstration in Tel Aviv, April 6, 2024. (Iddo Schejter / The Times of Israel)

The demonstration in Tel Aviv begins with a moment of silence for fallen soldiers, which is immediately interrupted by a counter-protester yelling that now is not the time to protest because of the ongoing war. The man is dragged out of the demonstration as protesters chant “Elections now!”

The rally’s first speaker is Anat Gilor, a founding member of Kibbutz Holit in the Negev Desert, two kilometers (1.2 miles) away from the Gaza border.

Gilor tells of her experiences hiding in her home’s safe room on October 7 for hours without any assistance as Hamas terrorists rampaged around the Kibbutz, killing 15 people. “My defense, my security, my trust was taken,” she says. “Everything I took for granted was taken. And nobody came to apologize.”

“My country was stolen from me and I want her back,” Gilor adds, calling for the government to be replaced. “I will never forgive [the government] for the rest of my life.”

The next speaker is Res. Brig. Giora Inbar, a 68-year-old retired IDF officer who went to Gaza border communities on October 7 to assist in fighting against Hamas.

Inbar tells of how his experience in reserve duty reinstalled hope in him for the country’s future, but he was angered to return home to a government and “a prime minister who is concerned only with his own political survivor.”

Other speakers include Shai Keidar, a reservist from Kibbutz Sde Menachem in the north, which was evacuated during the war, and Lior Ackerman, a former senior Shin Bet official.

9:18 pm

Alongside Tel Aviv protest, tens of thousands stage smaller rallies nationwide

In addition to tens of thousands of protesters attending anti-government rallies in Tel Aviv and Haifa, smaller gatherings are taking place nationwide, totaling many thousands more in Caesarea, Herzliya, Kfar Saba, Ra’anana and Karkur.

In Caesarea, where protesters demanded a new election and called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign, police detained at least one person near Netanyahu’s private residence. In videos of that incident, police are seen dragging the woman away from a fence where protesters against the government gathered at the end of a march toward the police barricades around the residence.

Separately, some 300 people attended a rally at Sha’ar Hanegev Junction near Sderot. Unlike most other rallies on Saturday, the one in the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council is described as nonpartisan by its organizers. The rally “commemorates six months since the war broke out” and the fact that some 130 people are “held hostage in Gaza,” organizers wrote about it.

The rally is a joint event by residents of Sderot — a stronghold of Netanyahu’s Likud party — and the Regional Councils of Sha’ar Hanegev and Eshkol, which have many kibbutzim and moshavim with predominantly left-wing or centrist electorates.

“We all understand the greatness of the hour and it’s crucial that in Jerusalem, too, the issue of the hostages remains the focus,” says acting head of the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council Yossi Keren.

9:25 pm

Tel Aviv anti-government protest ends, merges with hostage deal protest on Begin Street

A protester hold a sign reading "Netanyahu's survival or the survival of the hostages" at a Tel Aviv protest calling for early elections and the release of the hostages from Gaza, April 6, 2024. (Lior Segev / Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

The anti-government protest ends and demonstrators join the hostage deal protest a few hundred meters away on Begin Street.

Many are carrying torches, which have become a staple of hostage protests, as they chant slogans demanding the release of hostages, and some light bonfires.

Tonight’s demonstrations appear to be the largest since October 7.

9:31 pm

IDF says 2 soldiers seriously wounded in central Gaza this morning

Two soldiers of the 401st Armored Brigade’s 46th Battalion were seriously wounded this morning in the central Gaza Strip, the IDF says.

The troops were wounded in an accident involving a tank shell that exploded, according to an initial IDF probe.

They were taken to hospitals for treatment and their families were notified.

More than 1,550 soldiers have been wounded during the ongoing ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza, including 317 seriously.

9:55 pm

Protesters in Tel Aviv chant ‘Elad we’re sorry!’ after hostage Elad Katzir’s body retrieved from Gaza

Protesters in Tel Aviv chant “Elad, we’re sorry!” after the IDF said earlier today that it had retrieved the body of hostage Elad Katzir, who is believed to have been killed by his Palestinian Islamic Jihad captors sometime in mid-January.

“Elad we’re sorry we didn’t push harder, that we stayed at home, that we didn’t turn the world upside down,” the protester leading the chant cries.

"אלעד, סליחה" הקהל בעצרת משפחות החטופים, בערב שובר במיוחד pic.twitter.com/3ZYZwmbq4e

— Nurit Canetti (@Sykocan) April 6, 2024

9:59 pm

Hostile aircraft sirens sound in multiple locations in the Golan Heights

Hostile aircraft sirens sound across multiple locations in the northern Golan Heights, close to the border with Lebanon.

Sirens can be heard in the Druze localities of Majdal Shams, Mas’ade and Ein Qiniyye, among others.

Red Alert [21:55:56] – 8 Alerts:

• Northern Golan — Buq'ata, Majdal Shams, Ein Quiniyye, Odem, Neveh Ativ, El Rom, Mas'ade, Nimrod#Israel #RocketAlert #RedAlert pic.twitter.com/pL59Kq3QCG

— ILRedAlert (@ILRedAlert) April 6, 2024

10:07 pm

Protesters in Jerusalem demand hostage deal, say captives will return only through agreements, not combat

By Charlie Summers

Former Labor party politician Yaya Fink speaks at hostage families' demonstration in Jerusalem on April 6, 2024. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)

Hundreds of demonstrators demanding the government reach a hostage deal are gathered in Paris Square outside Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem.

“We have seen that our hostages will come back to us through agreements and not through combat,” says Tom Barkai, an organizer with the Jerusalem branch of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, to the crowd to open tonight’s demonstration, taking place half a year after Hamas’s October 7 massacre.

Onstage, reservist and former Labor party activist Yaya Fink is requesting forgiveness from the family members of some 130 hostages still held in Hamas captivity for “returning home after 142 days of reserve duty without succeeding to return your loved ones home.”

Unlike previous weeks in which protesters marched from a regular anti-Netanyahu protest outside the President’s Residence to Paris Square to hear from family members of the hostages, the order of tonight’s protests is flipped, with the Hostage Families Forum speeches taking place before the anti-Netanyahu ones.

Rotem Sharabi, the niece of Yossi Sharabi, who was murdered by Hamas in captivity, and Eli Sharabi, who remains hostage in Gaza, is singing her own rendition of “Shir HaMaalot” to conclude tonight’s speeches.

10:11 pm

At least one arrested in Tel Aviv as protesters march on Begin Street

A protestor lights a cigarette from the bonfire lit during the demonstration for the return of the hostages, on Begin Street in Tel Aviv, April 6, 2024. (Roi Boshi/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

As protesters begin marching north on Begin Street, The Times of Israel witnesses one demonstrator wearing a Brothers and Sisters in Arms t-shirt being forcefully arrested and two women on the ground receiving medical attention after having seemingly been knocked over in the mayhem of the march.

Protesters attempt to block the police car the arrested individual is put into but are pushed aside by officers.

A short while ago, a skirmish broke out between police and protesters as police tried to put out bonfires lit by demonstrators.

After struggling with the demonstrators who were blocking their way, police extinguished the fires.

10:20 pm

War cabinet to meet early Sunday to discuss sending delegation to Cairo negotiations – report

Israel’s war cabinet will meet early on Sunday morning to discuss whether or not to send a delegation to negotiations for a possible temporary truce and hostage release deal in Cairo this coming week, Hebrew media reports.

Attending the negotiations in Cairo will be CIA chief William Burns, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani and the head of Egypt’s General Intelligence Directorate Abbas Kamel, Ynet reports.

10:26 pm

3 Tel Aviv protesters hit by a car, driver arrested after driving off without stopping

Three protesters were hit by a car and injured in Tel Aviv a short while ago, the police say in a short statement, and are receiving medical treatment.

The driver hit the three protesters and kept driving until the police successfully stopped the vehicle and arrested the suspect.

תיעוד דריסת המפגינים בתל אביב. 5 נפגעו. הנהג נעצר לאחר שברח מהמקום

צילום: איתי רזיאל pic.twitter.com/t8Lc54tbfZ

— Bar Peleg (@bar_peleg) April 6, 2024

Two of the injured are in mild condition and the third was moderately injured, the police add.

10:34 pm

Protesters crowd workers union headquarters, demand it calls a strike to pressure government into hostage deal

Protesters call for a general strike outside of the Histadrut workers union headquarters in Tel Aviv, April 6, 2024. (Iddo Schejter / The Times of Israel)

Protesters in Tel Aviv make their way down Arlozorov Street toward the Histadrut workers union headquarters to demand that chairman Arnon Bar David declare a large-scale strike to pressure the government into agreeing to a deal for the release of the hostages from Gaza.

Outside the building, protesters chant “Strike now!”

The move is a break from previous weeks when protesters instead marched to the Ayalon highway.

10:38 pm

IDF says one of its drones downed by Hezbollah missile over southern Lebanon

The IDF says one of its drones was downed by a Hezbollah surface-to-air missile over southern Lebanon a short while ago.

The announcement comes after Hezbollah said it shot down an Elbit Hermes 450 UAV over Lebanese airspace.

The IDF says the incident is under further investigation.

In February, Hezbollah managed to shoot down another Hermes 450 drone, prompting IDF strikes deep in Lebanon for the first time in years.

11:10 pm

Skirmishes between protesters, police outside Histadrut workers union headquarters

Skirmishes break out between protesters and police as they attempt to break up the demonstration outside the Histadrut workers union headquarters.

Police and protesters alike slip and fall during the scuffle as a result of fake blood that was poured on the street earlier in the protest.

The Times of Israel witnesses one demonstrator being arrested.

“Police, police, who are you protecting?” protesters chant in Hebrew, while others shout “Ben Gvir is a terrorist!” about the ultranationalist national security minister.

11:23 pm

UK maritime body says missiles fired at vessel off coast of Yemen

By AFP and ToI Staff

A missile attack missed a vessel southwest of Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah, British maritime security agency UKMTO says, noting that both the vessel and its crew were safe.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations reports two missiles in the vicinity of the vessel.

“The first was intercepted” by US-led coalition forces,” it says.

“The second impacted the water a distance from the vessel,” it adds, noting that “the vessel reports no damage and the crew are reported safe.”

Maritime security firm Ambrey also said “a vessel was targeted…southwest of Hodeidah,” but did not provide additional details.

While there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have been attacking ships transiting in the Red Sea since November, claiming to be doing so as an act of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza amid Israel’s war with Hamas.

UKMTO ADVISORY INCIDENT 061

ATTACKhttps://t.co/K4BU9BXk05 #MaritimeSecurity #MarSec pic.twitter.com/AkiSFHlFm2

— UKMTO Operations Centre (@UK_MTO) April 6, 2024

11:52 pm

After protesters hit by car in Tel Aviv, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi blames ‘leftist leaders’ for violence

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi attends a hearing of the Knesset Economy Committee, November 20, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

After three protesters were injured by a car that plowed into them during the Tel Aviv protests for elections and a hostage release deal, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi says that Israel’s civil discourse has deteriorated due to “leftist leaders, inside and outside the coalition.”

“Don’t run over protesters. Period. Don’t attack police officers, period. Don’t throw burning torches at the prime minister’s house. Period,” writes Karhi on X in reference to protests in Jerusalem which have turned rowdy.

“Even if the reality of allowing disturbances and blocking the roads is intolerable, one must exercise restraint and be very careful,” he says, in apparent criticism of the anti-government protests which are back in full swing and taking place alongside hostage deal protests after pausing in the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas massacre.

“This deterioration to October 6, let by leftist leaders, inside and outside the coalition, does not help anyone and tears us apart in the middle of a war,” writes the Likud minister.

11:53 pm

4 arrested, elderly man knocked over by police horse as Tel Aviv protest forcibly dispersed