Following more than 14 months of fighting against Hamas in the Palestinian territory, thousands of Israelis protested on Saturday in support of an agreement to free the remaining captives being detained in Gaza.
Prominent Israeli actor Lior Ashkenazi told a throng assembled in Tel Aviv, a business center, “We all can agree that we have failed until now and that we can reach an agreement now.”
Says Itzik Horn, whose sons Iair and Eitan are still in captivity in Gaza: “End the war, the time has arrived for action and the time has arrived to bring everyone home.”
After months of fruitless mediation attempts, there has been cautious optimism in recent days that a ceasefire and hostage release agreement for Gaza may finally be within sight.
During Hamas’ October 2023 raid, Palestinian militants took 251 captives; 96 of them are still in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military claims are killed.
There was fresh “momentum” for discussions last week, according to Qatar, a major facilitator in the negotiations.
During a visit to Jordan on Saturday, US Security Secretary Antony Blinken declared: “This is the moment to finally conclude that agreement.”
In Egypt, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met on Saturday with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Middle East envoy Brett McGurk.
“The meeting addressed efforts to reach an agreement for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange in Gaza,” Sisi’s office said.
According to an AFP count of Israeli official data, Hamas’s strike last year killed 1,208 people, primarily civilians, and set off the conflict in Gaza.
According to the United Nations-reliable health ministry numbers from the Hamas-run enclave, Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 44,930 persons in Gaza, most of them civilians.
