Protests in Jerusalem Demand Elections

Tens of thousands of people have protested in Jerusalem, calling for immediate elections and an end to the war in Gaza. Israeli police said nine protesters were arrested.

Many Israelis, anguished over the hostages still held in Gaza and the ongoing war, accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of putting political interests ahead of all else. They accuse the government of having lost control of the 8-month-old war and demand a deal to stop the fighting and return the hostages.

Netanyahu denies the accusations and says he has the country’s best interests in mind.

Netanyahu dissolved the three-man war Cabinet tasked with steering the conflict. The move came a week after Benny Gantz, an opposition lawmaker, quit the coalition government over frustration with the Israeli leader's handling of the war.

“We came to demonstrate again, the 50th time, we are here, in Tel Aviv, everywhere,” said protester Dror Katzman. “To get rid of this corrupted government, that does not release the hostages, that runs the war in a clumsy way and is responsible for the worst attack on us.”

This protest in Jerusalem was led by many of the same activists who led the protests against Netanyahu and his attempts to overhaul the judiciary in 2023.

Protesters marched from outside the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, to Netanyahu’s private residence carrying Israeli flags and chanting anti-government slogans.

“Because of you we are dying, get out of our lives” one protesters’ sign proclaimed, with a photo of Netanyahu and bloody handprints.

Others referenced the 11 soldiers killed in Gaza over the weekend, one of the deadliest for Israeli soldiers in months, holding a sign that read “Combat soldiers refuse to be killed because of Bibi,” using a nickname for Netanyahu.