Anti-war protests erupt across Israel against Benjamin Netanyahu’s assault plan

“Those who today call for an end to the war without defeating Hamas are not only hardening Hamas’ position and delaying the release of our hostages, they are also ensuring that the horrors of October 7 will be repeated,” Netanyahu said, referencing the Hamas-led attack in 2023 that killed some 1200 people and sparked the war.

The last time Israel agreed to a ceasefire that released some hostages earlier this year, far-right members of his cabinet threatened to topple Netanyahu’s government.

Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called Sunday’s demonstrations “a bad and harmful campaign that plays into Hamas’ hands, buries the hostages in the tunnels and attempts to get Israel to surrender to its enemies and jeopardise its security and future”.

The new offensive would require the call-up of thousands of reservists, another concern for many Israelis.

Hospitals and witnesses in Gaza said Israeli forces killed at least 17 aid-seekers on Sunday, including nine awaiting UN aid trucks close to the Morag corridor.

Hamza Asfour said he was just north of the corridor awaiting a convoy when Israeli snipers fired, first to disperse the crowds. He saw two people with gunshot wounds.

“It’s either to take this risk or wait and see my family die of starvation,” he said.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which runs the Israeli-backed and US-supported distribution points that have become the main source of aid since they opened in May, said there was no gunfire “at or near” its sites, which are located in military-controlled areas.

An Israeli strike targeting a group of people in the Bureij camp in central Gaza killed three, according to Al-Awda hospital, which received the casualties.

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Israel’s military did not immediately respond to questions.

Israel’s air and ground war has killed more than 61,900 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not specify how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children.

Two children and five adults died of malnutrition-related causes on Sunday, according to the ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The UN and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on casualties. Israel disputes its figures but has not provided its own.

The United Nations has warned that levels of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza are at their highest since the war began. Most aid has been blocked from entering Gaza since Israel imposed a total blockade in March after ending a ceasefire. Deliveries have since partially resumed, though aid organisations say the flow is far below what is needed.

It is not clear when Israel’s military will begin the new offensive in crowded Gaza City, Muwasi and what Netanyahu has called the “central camps” of Gaza.

The military body that co-ordinates its humanitarian aid to Gaza, COGAT, this weekend noted plans to forcibly evacuate people from combat zones to southern Gaza “for their protection.” Designated “safe zones,” however, also have been bombed during the war.

War-weary Palestinians insisted they won’t leave, arguing that there is no safe place in Gaza.

“There are no humanitarian zones at all,” said Raghda Abu Dhaher, who said she has been displaced 10 times during the war and now shelters in a school in western Gaza City.

Mohamed Ahmed also insisted that he won’t move south. “Here is bombing and there is bombing,” he said.

AP

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