TEL AVIV, Aug 10 (NNN-XINHUA) – Tel Aviv’s Ayalon highway shut down, last night, as protesters light bonfires in the road; relatives of hostages bewail ‘eternal war-mongers’ for choosing to ‘sacrifice’ their loved ones.
Ten of thousands of protesters gathered in Tel Aviv and cities across Israel, last night, to call for a hostage deal and ceasefire agreement, before Israel launches its planned mission to conquer Gaza City, as the families of the captives called for a general strike, in opposition to the plan that they warn will mark a death knell for their loved ones.
The protests, which were some of the biggest in months, came days after the cabinet decided to seize the densely populated Palestinian city, despite the military’s objections that the move would imperil the captives, needlessly endanger troops, and deepen the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
“A bright red flag is waving over the government’s decision to sacrifice our loved ones,” said the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, in a press release before yesterday’s rallies. The Forum urged decision-makers: “Reach a comprehensive hostage deal, stop the war, bring us back our loved ones — their time is up.”
The Families Forum, which represents the majority of the hostage families, also held rallies in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, the Shaar HaNegev Junction in the south, and Kiryat Gat, with smaller gatherings in dozens of other locations.
Speaking before a crowd of at least 10,000 people, at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, former captive, Sharon Aloni-Cunio, marked Tu B’Av, the Jewish festival of love that began yesterday, with a speech about her husband, David Cunio, who remains in captivity.
She said, after seeing hostages Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski last week, “I thought about my David: How much does he weigh? When did he last eat? Will he also be asked to dig his own grave?”
“Now, when eternal-war mongers are pushing all of us to a terrible disaster, they’re not even doing it for the hostages — they say out loud that they’re willing to sacrifice the hostages,” she said, slamming the government’s decision to expand the fighting and take over Gaza City.
She added that, her young daughter, Yuli, who was released with twin sister Emma and Sharon during the Nov, 2023, ceasefire, “is asking me if her dad no longer loves her because he hasn’t yet come back from Gaza.”
“I say to all decision-makers: If, God forbid, anything happens to my David, or to any other hostage, it’s on your hands,” she said.
Nearby, at the anti-government, pro-hostage deal protest in front of the Begin Street entrance, to the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, speakers urged soldiers to refuse to serve in the expanded fighting, and called on opposition heads, as well as, business, labour and academic leaders to bring the country to a standstill.
The mother of a combat officer in the IDF reserves, introduced only as Bat-El, told the listening crowd that, soldiers are wasting away physically and mentally and are deprived of proper defensive equipment.
The Gaza City takeover plan “puts Israel on the sure path to a forever war that will cause the death of the hostages, cause the deaths of hundreds of soldiers, cause the destruction of Israel’s image,” she said.
“Don’t agree to enter Gaza,” she urged. “Refuse to participate in an overtly illegal war.”
While the speakers did not mention the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as a reason to refuse to fight there, some protesters held up signs calling on soldiers to refuse to serve for that reason as well.
Elsewhere in Tel Aviv, several hundred left-wing activists held a silent protest, displaying signs showing pictures of Palestinian children killed by the IDF in Gaza.
As was mentioned by several relatives of hostages, during the protests last night, groups representing the families of the hostages and fallen soldiers are leading a push for a general strike of Israel’s economy, over the government’s plans for Gaza.
The families are planning to announce the demand and further steps at a press conference in Tel Aviv today, according to Hebrew media reports.
They will push private companies, organisations, trade unions and ordinary citizens to participate in the strike, under the slogan: “Silence kills — the country grinds to a halt to save the hostages and the soldiers.”– NNN-XINHUA
