STANDOFF OUTSIDE PM’S HOME
“The basic duty of the state is to ensure the return of the abducted. I was naive, I didn’t realise that our prime minister is not interested in bringing them back because of political considerations,” she said.
Former premier Barak said if Netanyahu launches a ground offensive on Rafah, the “hostages will return in coffins. The one who abandoned them on Oct 7 is now sacrificing them on the altar of absolute victory”.
He called for snap elections, saying “the man responsible” for the calamity should be “removed from the steering wheel”.
Zangauker said Netanyahu had tried to blacken the hostage families for protesting while the country was at war.
“You call us traitors when you are the traitor, a traitor to your people, to the State of Israel.”
Some 3,000 of the protesters later marched to Netanyahu’s home to shout slogans demanding he resign, with police saying some “rioters” tried to rip away barriers outside. Mounted officers charged into the crowd to stop them from breaking through.
Hamas militants seized about 250 hostages on Oct 7, of whom 33 are presumed dead.
Israel has been traumatised by the unprecedented Hamas attack that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Its retaliatory campaign has killed at least 32,916 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
Source: CNA
