JERUSALEM: Hundreds of Israelis protested near Tel Aviv on Saturday calling for early elections as the country faces growing international isolation due to the relentless war in Gaza.
Israeli media reported that about 300 people demonstrated in front of the Weizmann Institute of Science in the city of Rehovot, near Tel Aviv, demanding early elections and the removal of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The war and brutal attacks on Gaza have left tens of thousands people dead.
The pace of protests across Israel is expected to increase in the coming days.
Israelis hold almost daily demonstrations to pressure the government to negotiate a prisoner exchange deal with the Palestinian group Hamas and hold early elections.
Egypt and Qatar, supported by United States, are mediating between Israel and Hamas for a new ceasefire agreement and a prisoner exchange in the Gaza Strip.
Official sources on both sides estimate that Israel holds at least 8,800 Palestinians in prisons, while there are more than 125 hostages in the Gaza Strip.
According to the United Nations, Israel’s war has forced 85 percent of Gaza’s population into internal displacement and damaged or destroyed 60 percent of Gaza’s infrastructure amid a shortage of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel has been accused of genocide in the International Court of Justice. An initial ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop committing genocide and take steps to ensure humanitarian aid is delivered to civilians in the Gaza Strip.
