News   /   Palestine

1000s rally across occupied territories blasting Netanyahu for blocking truce deal

Thousands rally in the coastal city of Tel Aviv in the occupied Palestinian territories on August 17, 2024, demanding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to come in the way of a truce deal aimed at enabling the return of the captives held in the Gaza Strip.

Thousands rally across the occupied Palestinian territories, denouncing the Israeli regime’s prime minister for obstructing a truce deal aimed at enabling the return of the captives held in the Gaza Strip.

The rallies were held on Saturday throughout Tel Aviv, Haifa, and other locations across the territories.

The protesters held a press conference in front of the Israeli ministry of military affairs in Tel Aviv, saying Premier Benjamin Netanyahu was impeding a deal by coming up with new conditions.

They warned that the deal had to be reached within a week, and threatened to ramp up their demonstrations in the event it did not materialize.

"This is probably the last chance to make a deal,” said a demonstrator in Haifa.

Around 240 people were taken captive by Gaza’s resistance groups during a retaliatory operation staged against the occupied territories on October 7.

The regime has responded with a war that has so far claimed the lives of more than 40,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

The Gaza-based resistance movement Hamas says scores of the captives have also been killed in the intense bombing campaigns carried out by the regime against the coastal territory.

A week-long truce deal agreed last November saw the movement releasing 105 captives in return for some 240 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

The regime believes that over 100 captives are still held in Gaza and that around 50 of them are still alive.

Hamas has repeatedly said it would release the remaining captives in exchange for complete cessation of the Israeli aggression and the regime’s full withdrawal. It has also conditioned their release on the return of the displaced people, an end to the siege that has been imposed by Tel Aviv on Gaza, and initiation of the Palestinian territory’s reconstruction process.

Netanyahu has, however, vowed to keep up the war until, what he has called, “elimination” of Hamas, a prospect that has been ruled out as impossible by the group and even some Israeli officials and Tel Aviv’s own allies.

Those protesting in Tel Aviv, meanwhile, warned that the war as well as the regime’s incessant attacks on Lebanon and other incendiary acts of deadly aggression against the regional countries "will ignite the entire region."


Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir

SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Press TV News Roku