The demonstrators intensify pressure on Netanyahu’s plan to expand the Gaza war

Thousands of demonstrators moved to the streets throughout Israel to oppose the government’s plan to expand its military action in Gaza.

On Friday, the Israeli security cabinet approved five principles to end the war that included “security control” on the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli army said it would “prepare to control” on Gaza City.

The demonstrators, including family members of 50 hostages in Gaza, are afraid of 20 of them alive, and the plan is feared that the hostage life will endanger, and the government urged to secure their release.

“This will help to liberate our hostages.”

A group representing the hostages of the hostages on X said: “Expanding the scope of hostages and soldiers – the people of Israel are not ready to risk them!”

“We want the war to end because our hostages die there, and we need to be all at home now,” one of the demonstrators, Shaka, gathered in Jerusalem on Saturday.

“All it takes, we need to do so. If you need to stop the war, we will stop the war.”

Among the demonstrators in Jerusalem was a former soldier who told BBC that he is now rejecting service. Max Krish said he was a combat soldier at the beginning of the war and “has been refused since then.”

He said: “We are more than 350 soldiers who served during the war and we refuse to continue working in the political war in Netanyahu, which offered the hostages (and) the innocent Palestinians hungry in Gaza.”

The Times of Israel reported that family members are hostages and soldiers in a protest in Tel Aviv near the headquarters of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) called on other soldiers to refuse to serve in the expanded military operation to protect the hostages.

The mother of one of the hostages called for a general strike in Israel, although the country’s main labor union will not support it, according to the Israel newspaper.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also faced a strong opposition from the Chief of Staff of the Army, Lieutenant General General Eyal Zamir, according to the Israeli media, the Prime Minister warned that the complete occupation of Gaza was “as a walk in a trap” and would show off living hostages.

Opinion polls indicate that most of the Israeli public prefer a deal with Hamas to issue hostages and the end of the war.

Netanyahu Fox News previously told this week that Israel planned to occupy the entire Gaza Strip and ultimately “handed it over to the Arab forces.”

“We will not occupy Gaza – we will liberate Gaza from Hamas,” Netanyahu said on Friday. “This will help free our hostages and ensure Gaza does not form a threat to Israel in the future.”

The Israeli security cabinet plan is listed by five “principles” to end the war: the disarmament of Hamas, the return of all hostages, the Gaza Strip, the security control over the region, and the establishment of “an alternative civil administration, not Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.”

The United Nations has warned that the full military acquisition of Gaza City will risk “catastrophic consequences” on the Palestinians and hostages.

Up to one million Palestinians live in Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip, which was the city of Al -Jeep overcrowded before the war.

The United Kingdom, France, Canada and several other countries condemned Israel’s decision and Germany announced that it would stop its military exports to Israel in response.

The United Nations Security Council will meet on Sunday to discuss the Israel plan.

Israel began its military attack in Gaza after killing Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, where about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken into account.

Since then, more than 61,300 people have been killed in Gaza as a result of Israeli military operations, says the Hamas Ministry of Health.