Yesterday, Saturday, thousands of Israelis demonstrated in several cities to demand the conclusion of a prisoner exchange deal with the Palestinian factions and the holding of early elections.

The Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said that thousands of Israelis demonstrated in Kaplan Square, downtown Tel Aviv, and demanded that the government urgently conclude an exchange deal and organize early elections.

In Caesarea, about 2,000 demonstrators protested in front of the home of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and organized a memorial service for those killed in the events of last October 7, according to the same source.

Hundreds also demonstrated in the cities of Haifa, Rehovot and Ness Ziona and demanded the conclusion of an urgent deal that would lead to the release of prisoners detained in Gaza. The demonstrators raised banners accusing Netanyahu of not caring about the prisoners, and demanded that he resign immediately and organize early elections, according to the newspaper.

In front of Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem, hundreds of protesters demonstrated with the aim of pressuring him to conclude a prisoner exchange deal, according to official Army Radio.

The demonstrations later expanded to witness wider participation, especially after Al-Qassam announced the death of a prisoner of its own as a result of his injury in an Israeli bombing more than a month ago. The demonstrators raised banners accusing Netanyahu of not caring about the prisoners, and demanded that he resign immediately and organize early elections.

Confrontations broke out between hundreds of protesters and relatives of Israeli prisoners in Gaza, with the participation of prisoners who were released in the exchange deal last November, and between members of the Israeli police, after the closure of the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv, to demand the overthrow of the government and the conclusion of a prisoner exchange deal. Israeli police captured three families of prisoners held by Hamas.

Earlier on Saturday, the families of the Israeli prisoners in Gaza accused the Netanyahu government of “abandoning their children and leaving them to die,” after the Al-Qassam Brigades announced the death of Nadav Bublabel, 51 years old, their prisoner who holds British citizenship, as a result of his injury as a result of an Israeli bombing more than two years ago.

During a press conference in front of the Ministry of Defense headquarters in the “Kiryah” area in central Tel Aviv, a relative of detainees in Gaza said: “The government abandoned our children and left them to die, after it decided to enter Rafah (south of the Gaza Strip), as that puts their lives in danger.”
Recently, Israeli families escalated their protests to pressure the government to reach an agreement with the Hamas movement, especially with the latter announcing its approval of the mediators’ proposal to exchange detainees and cease fire in stages, while Israel had reservations about the proposal.