JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Thousands of Israelis took to the streets in Jerusalem on Monday, continuing three days of protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and demanding new elections.
Protests have intensified as the war in Gaza approaches the end of six months, with anger growing over the government's handling of the 134 Israeli hostages still held by Gaza's Islamist movement Hamas. .
“We came here to protest, to demand elections as soon as possible. We have reached our limit,” Timna Ben, a protester in Jerusalem, said, using Netanyahu's nickname. “I feel like we really need to get rid of Bibi.” .
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing coalition faced the largest protests in Israel's history last year, with hundreds of thousands of people taking part in weekly demonstrations against plans to overhaul the Supreme Court's powers, which protesters called Israel's It was seen as an attack on democratic foundations.
war in Israel and Gaza
Prime Minister Netanyahu has repeatedly ruled out early elections, with opinion polls suggesting a defeat, saying going to the polls in the middle of a war would only benefit Hamas.
He promised to bring the hostages home and destroy Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls Gaza, according to Hamas-run health authorities. More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in months of Israeli attacks there, according to Hamas-run health authorities.
But months after the Gaza crisis suspended normal political rules, Netanyahu faced increasingly vocal opposition.
According to a survey, most Israelis feel uneasy about the security failures that led to a devastating attack by Hamas fighters on a community in southern Israel on October 7 that killed around 1,200 people, according to an Israeli tally. He has criticized Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister. And dozens of hostages were taken.
“They don't care about what happens to the country or the people. They care about maintaining their position in the government. They work for themselves, not for the people. .It's simple,'' said protester Refael Chaked Gabish.
To complicate matters, Prime Minister Netanyahu is also facing protests from ultra-Orthodox Jewish demonstrators angered by the removal of exemptions that have kept young students from religious seminaries from compulsory military service.
(Reporting by Dedi Hayun; Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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