Growing anger at Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has led thousands of Israelis to take to the streets to demand the prime minister’s resignation. Protesters blocked Tel Aviv’s main road, and police fired water cannons at demonstrators.

Families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza have called for a mass demonstration in front of the parliament in Jerusalem next week, while thousands of people gathered in their support in Tel Aviv on Saturday, writes AFP.

Protesters blocked one of Tel Aviv’s main roads and two parallel rallies, one demanding the release of hostages held in Gaza and the other criticizing the Israeli government, Agerpres noted.

The police used water cannons against the demonstrators, who lit fireworks and blocked part of the roads with vehicles.

Protests all over Israel

In Jerusalem, hundreds of people gathered in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s house and demanded his resignation. Israeli media reported the organization of demonstrations against the government in several cities of the country, but on a smaller scale.

Earlier in the day, thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv, Israel’s largest city, to hear the families of the hostages call for a mass demonstration outside Jerusalem’s parliament next week.

A rally will be held in front of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem next week, the Hostage Families Forum reports.

Not far from the weekly demonstration in Tel Aviv’s Museum of Fine Arts Square, which has been renamed Hostage Square, anti-government demonstrators gathered in front of the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv.

“You’re the boss, you’re to blame”

Some held placards blaming Netanyahu for the fate of the hostages, with pictures of the prime minister saying: “You’re the boss, it’s your fault.”

The police accused the anti-government demonstrators of “rebellion” and declared the demonstration illegal. Demonstrators violated “(public) order by lighting bonfires on the road,” she added.

Some of those who took to the streets to support the families of the hostages later joined the anti-government rally, an AFP photojournalist found.

About 250 people were abducted and taken to Gaza in the bloody attack on October 7, 130 of whom are still hostages, of whom 34 have died, according to Israel.

Former hostage Raz Ben Ami, freed in November after a truce deal brokered by Qatar and the United States, has directly asked Netanyahu to speed up negotiations to free other hostages still held in the Palestinian territories, where Israel and Hamas have been engaged in a devastating war. almost six months.

“Give the order to Qatar’s negotiators: do not return without an agreement! Do not return without an agreement!” she said.