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.