Thousands of Israelis take to streets to demand hostage swap deal, dismissal of Netanyahu government

Thousands protested Saturday across Israel to demand a hostage swap deal with Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip and the dismissal of the government led by Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that thousands in Tel Aviv, Netanya, Haifa and the Qiryat Tivon junction demanded the release of hostages in Gaza, the holding of early elections and the dismissal of the government.

Israeli army radio also reported that tens of thousands demonstrated in Kaplan Square in central Tel Aviv to demand the government conclude an immediate hostage swap deal with Palestinian factions.

Several protesters closed a section of Ayalon Street in central Tel Aviv, which police later reopened using force, according to the Israeli broadcasting authority.

Nearly 37,300 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli forces since last October, most of them women and children, and almost 85,200 others injured, according to local health authorities.

More than eight months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.