Unabout 100,000 people gathered in Jerusalem on Sunday, according to organizers, to protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and demand early elections as his leadership of the war in Gaza enters its sixth month. The demonstrations marked a public show of discontent at a pivotal moment in the conflict that has drawn intense international attention and raised questions about political accountability at home.
For the first time, families of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza joined the anti-government protests, calling for a deal that would secure the release of the 130 captives still in the enclave. The turnout was described by organizers as the largest protest in Israel since the war began.
One speaker, the daughter of Hanna Katzir, a hostage freed during the seven-day truce between Israel and Hamas last November, urged Netanyahu to step aside if he could not secure the captives’ return. She said, “If you cannot bring them back, take a step aside. We need someone who can make it happen.”
Netanyahu, speaking to reporters as the march unfolded, argued that calling elections early would halt the negotiations to free the hostages. He warned that Hamas would be the first to benefit from any paralysis in the process and stressed his government’s commitment to bringing the captives home, while criticizing what he described as Hamas’s hard-line demands in negotiations in Doha, Qatar, as a national security risk.
Not all protesters shared that view. Maya Gal, 70, a participant in the march, suggested that Netanyahu’s motive was to avoid accountability rather than to resolve the hostage crisis. She told EFE that the prime minister appeared more concerned with political survival than with the soldiers and captives.
Yair Lapid, the opposition leader, criticized the decision not to cancel the Knesset’s spring recess, which would extend over six weeks starting April 7. He asked why lawmakers should take a break when people are fighting in Gaza and said the parliament should not go on holiday during such a critical moment, as protesters planned to camp outside the parliament for four days.
The protest drew a broad coalition of groups asking for the prime minister’s resignation. Among those present were dozens of reserve soldiers who gathered in Mea Shearim, an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood, urging a shift in policy that would allow yeshiva students to be recruited for service. For decades, ultra-Orthodox youths eligible for exemptions could stay out of the draft by enrolling in Torah study yeshivas, typically extending their exemption to the current age of 26. A government measure enacted in June 2023 expires at midnight Sunday, opening the door to conscription for ultra-Orthodox men beginning Monday.
The mobilization comes after 287,000 reservists were called up for the Gaza war, which has stretched on for nearly six months. There has also been a considerable deployment of troops along the northern border with Lebanon and in the occupied West Bank. Many Israelis are pressing for a universal draft, arguing that all young people should share in the defense of the country during this period of heightened security risk.
The current coalition, however, depends on the backing of ultra-Orthodox parties that oppose universal enlistment and have the leverage to topple the government if their demands are not met.
Gali Baharav-Miara, Israel’s attorney general, sent letters to the Defense and Education Ministries urging them to begin planning for the recruitment of ultra-Orthodox recruits from Monday.
Netanyahu expressed hope that the recruitment issue would be resolved through a political agreement among the groups involved and said he would be back in action soon after a planned back surgery for a hernia that he underwent on Sunday.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, around ten journalists were injured when an Israeli airstrike hit the courtyard of the Martyrs of Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, the territory’s central hospital, where two people were killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Hamas authorities reported that the number of journalists killed in Gaza since the war began had risen to 137 after a photographer working for multiple outlets was killed when his home was bombed in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp near Deir al-Balah. Around 32,800 people had died since the conflict started, with more than 70% being women and children, and dozens of children dying from acute malnutrition as the enclave faces imminent famine, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.