Police use considerable force near PM’s home to disperse protesters urging hostage deal
At least 12 arrests, ToI reporter grabbed by the throat, in Jerusalem; demos also held outside Netanyahu’s Caesarea residence and in Tel Aviv, where Ayalon Freeway blocked
Thousands of Israelis gathered around the country on Monday evening at the end of the second consecutive day of protests in favor of a hostage-release ceasefire deal. In Jerusalem, protesters were met with considerable violence at the hands of the police, who made more than a dozen arrests as they pushed demonstrators down, apparently at random.
The protests erupted on Sunday and continued throughout Monday, including in the form of a general strike, after the IDF recovered the bodies of six hostages from Gaza, all of whom had been executed by Hamas just days earlier.
In Jerusalem, demonstrators blasted horns heard throughout the Rehavia neighborhood and on the roads close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence, carrying stretchers and signs with portraits of hostages, lit bonfires, and chanted, “May their memories be a revolution.”
“The citizens of Israel are taking to the streets because they have realized that their prime minister decided to abandon Israeli citizens to their deaths,” Shai Mozes, nephew of Hamas hostage Gadi Mozes, said in his address to the crowds outside the prime minister’s residence.
Referring to Netanyahu’s insistence that Israel will refuse to entertain any deal that requires it to withdraw its troops from the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, Mozes charged that the prime minister had made this demand and had it approved by the security cabinet for his own “political survival.”
“He made this decision contrary to the position of all senior members of the defense establishment, and while fully aware of the cost,” Mozes charged, according to Channel 12. “He was warned, and yet he still decided to abandon them.”
Violence broke out between protesters and police at the demonstration near Netanyahu’s Azza Street home. Police officers threw people to the ground, seemingly at random, while making arrests, and many of those detained were dragged away forcibly.
The assault happened amid a melee initiated by the police forces that saw officers push protesters up Azza Street away from Netanyahu’s residence.
During the clashes, one officer put a hand on the throat of a Times of Israel reporter, squeezing, and driving the reporter back some 30 meters (nearly 100 feet), despite him having identified himself as a member of the press.
One protester was evacuated by medical personnel bleeding from the forehead.
Israel’s Channel 12 news reported that several protesters breached a set of roadblocks set up to prevent them from nearing Netanyahu’s residence, and lit a bonfire in the middle of the street.
Following the violence, the Israel Police claimed that protest attendees had “made attempts to march toward nearby streets, without coordinating with the police.”
“Some of the protesters began disturbing the peace, crossing fences, clashing with the police and lighting flares,” the police statement added.
Meanwhile, in Caesarea, directly opposite Netanyahu’s cordoned-off beachfront residence, protesters held a cacophonous rally with some 5,000 participants, according to organizers.
One of Netanyahu’s neighbors had signs hanging from their home saying “Enough” and “The Derelict,” as well as a banner with the popular protest slogan “You are in charge, you are to blame.”
The crowd eschewed organized speeches in favor of slogans chanted over megaphones accompanied by drums, horns, whistles and yelling.
A bonfire was lit on the sand, as a protester held up a sign in English saying “Fuck this shit! Stop the war. Free Gaza from Hamas, free us from Bibi.”
Earlier in the day, around 1,000 protesters sang, shouted and blocked traffic on Begin Street in Tel Aviv. Dozens blocked the Ayalon Freeway.
To the deafening beat of drums, they vowed not to abandon those still held by Hamas.
Posters depicted the six hostages murdered by Hamas whose bodies were retrieved Saturday by the IDF, as well as those still in captivity in the coastal enclave. Other posters called for “Values before everything,” charging that the government of Israel was acting against the nation.
The Histadrut labor union held a general strike on Monday to pressure the government to make a deal for the release of hostages. Netanyahu said the strike was a “show of support” for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. The labor action was cut short by court order, after it was deemed political in nature and thus illegal.
It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 33 confirmed dead by the IDF.
מפגינים חוסמים את איילון צפון @AnnaPines_ pic.twitter.com/VmqQFiuQOL
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) September 2, 2024
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
