Israeli protesters have shut down streets in Tel Aviv demanding the release of hostages and the political end of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Anger has been growing inside Israel as the Gaza war drags on for now more than 200 days, with some Israelis angry a hostage release deal still hasn't been reached.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 Well every week thousands of Israelis come from across the country to gather here on
00:06 the streets of central Tel Aviv protesting against the government of Israeli Prime Minister
00:12 Benjamin Netanyahu.
00:14 The reasons for being here are varied but the one thing that threads this whole community
00:19 together is the 130 odd hostages that are still being held captive inside of Gaza.
00:26 And they say they are angry and frustrated at the actions of the Netanyahu government
00:33 and what they say has been an inability to negotiate a deal to get those hostages out.
00:44 Some of them say that Mr Netanyahu has put revenge before a diplomatic attempt to get
00:52 these hostages back into Israel.
00:57 We want our hostages to come home and we don't have trust or faith in this government and
01:04 what it's been doing for a long time but it's now, we have to have the change.
01:13 What is it you think that they haven't done right?
01:15 I think the problem is that we don't know and I don't trust Mr Netanyahu and the other
01:20 people in the government to be, not all of them, but to be doing as much as they can
01:26 to bring the hostages home.
01:29 I particularly feel awful because of these 133 hostages that are being kept there with
01:36 no obvious attempt by my government to release them.
01:41 We are really angry at the government for irresponsible, slightly crazy I would say,
01:49 leadership. It is obvious that the only way to do it is to stop the war, to have a lasting
01:56 ceasefire. This will bring, in exchange of course, of bringing the hostages.
02:07 You hear the protests here, they're saying elections now. They want Benjamin Netanyahu
02:14 and certain members of his cabinet to resign. They say that is the only way they feel that
02:19 they will be able to push ahead with actually securing a deal to get the hostages back into
02:26 Israel.
02:27 That's not a position that the Prime Minister is entertaining. He says he will not resign,
02:34 there will not be early elections, although you can feel from the crowds here there's
02:38 passion and anger. They say they will continue to come out here every week until they get
02:44 what they want.
02:45 [BLANK_AUDIO]