JERUSALEM: Thousands of protesters massed in Jerusalem on Wednesday, chanting slogans against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who they accuse of undermining democracy and resuming Gaza strikes without regard for hostages.
Protesters shouted “You are the head, and you’re to blame” as well as “The blood is on your hands” at the demonstration near parliament, the largest to take place in Jerusalem for months.
The demonstration was organized by anti-Netanyahu opposition groups protesting the premier’s move to sack Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet internal security agency.
Following Netanyahu’s announcement to dismiss Bar, which threatened to trigger political crisis, Israel launched a wave of overnight strikes on Gaza, by far the deadliest since the start of a fragile ceasefire in January.
Relatives of the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza joined the rally outside the parliament in Jerusalem.
“We hope all people from Israel will join this movement and we will not stop until we restore democracy and freedom for the hostages,” said Zeev Berar, 68, from Tel Aviv.
“At this rate we won’t have a country left, not a democratic one. It will be a dictatorship,” student Roni Sharon, 18, told AFP.
Some in the crowd brandished banners reading: “We are all hostages.”
Relatives of the hostages in the Gaza Strip have said the decision to resume strikes could “sacrifice” their loved ones.
Of the 251 hostages seized during the unprecedented October 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the war, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
The demonstrators in Jerusalem also accuse Netanyahu of using the war against Hamas to distract from domestic political concerns.
The prime minister has so far refused to set up a national commission of inquiry into Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, while his bid to dismiss Bar threatened to plunge Israel back into deep political crisis.
Netanyahu’s government recently also moved to oust Israel’s attorney general and government judiciary adviser, Gali Baharav-Miara, a fierce defendant of the judiciary’s independence.
A 2023 judicial reform project aimed at curbing the supreme court’s powers fractured the country and sparked major protests — before coming to an abrupt halt with Hamas’s October 7 attack.
“The last two years have been a nightmare for us,” said Yael Baron, 55, from the city of Modiin.
“I feel as though we are in the 99th minute and time is running out to save the country, the oxygen is running out for us, like democracy is running out.”
Thousands join anti-government rally in Jerusalem
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Thousands join anti-government rally in Jerusalem
- Relatives of the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza joined the rally outside the parliament in Jerusalem
Gaza rescuers say Israeli strikes kill at least 29
- Thursday’s toll included eight people killed in an Israeli air strike on the Abu Sahlul family home in Khan Yunis refugee
- Four people were killed in an air strike east of Shaaf in Gaza City’s Al-Tuffah neighborhood
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Thursday Israeli bombardment killed at least 29 people since midnight in the war-ravaged territory, which has been under Israeli aid blockade for nearly two months.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile said that while the military’s mission was to bring home all the hostages from Gaza, its “supreme goal” was to achieve victory against Hamas.
Israel resumed its campaign in the Gaza Strip on March 18, after a two-month truce collapsed over disagreements between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas whose 2023 attack triggered the conflict.
Civil defense official Mohammed Al-Mughayyir said Thursday’s toll included eight people killed in an air strike on the Abu Sahlul family home in Khan Yunis refugee camp in southern Gaza.
Four people were killed in an air strike east of Shaaf in Gaza City’s Al-Tuffah neighborhood, he told AFP.
At least 17 more were killed in other attacks across the Palestinian territory, including one that hit a tent sheltering displaced people near the central city of Deir el-Balah, the agency said.
“We came here and found all these houses destroyed, and children, women and young people all bombed to pieces,” said Ahmed Abu Zarqa after a deadly strike in Khan Yunis.
“This is no way to live. Enough, we’re tired, enough!
“We don’t know what to do with our lives any more. We’d rather die than live this kind of life.”
At Nasser Hospital
AFP images showed residents digging through rubble in search of bodies, which were carried away on stretchers under blankets.
At Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, rescuers rushed a screaming wounded child out of an ambulance, as a group of women mourned.
“What have the children done wrong? What have we done wrong? Enough is enough. Just drop a nuclear bomb on us,” said Ghada Abu Sahlul as she mourned the death of a relative.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Thursday that at least 2,326 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes, bringing the overall death toll since the war broke out to 52,418.
The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel vows ‘significant force’ if Syria govt fails to protect Druze
- At least 101 people have been killed in two days of sectarian clashes near Syria’s capital, most of them Druze fighters, a war monitor said
JERUSALEM: Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Thursday that Israel will respond forcefully if Syria’s government fails to protect the Druze minority, after two days of deadly sectarian clashes near Damascus.
“Should the attacks on the Druze resume and the Syrian regime fail to prevent them, Israel will respond with significant force,” Katz said in a statement.
Israel has ramped up its support for Syria’s Druze in recent days, with Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Thursday urging the international community to “fulfil its role in protecting the minorities in Syria — especially the Druze — from the regime and its gangs of terror.”
At least 101 people have been killed in two days of sectarian clashes near Syria’s capital, most of them Druze fighters, a war monitor said in an updated toll on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Israel carried out a strike against what it called an “extremist group” preparing to attack members of the Druze community near Damascus.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strike on the town of Sahnaya sent a “stern message” to Syria’s new government.
Israel’s armed forces chief later ordered the military to prepare to strike Syrian government targets if the Druze community faced more violence.
Israel’s military said two injured Druze Syrians were evacuated from Syria on Thursday for treatment in Israel, after announcing Wednesday that three had been evacuated.
It did not specify how or where they had been injured.
In its statement on Thursday, it said they were taken for treatment to the town of Safed in northern Israel “after sustaining injuries in Syrian territory.”
“The IDF (military) is deployed in southern Syria and is prepared to prevent the entry of hostile forces into the area of Druze villages,” it added.
Weekend round of nuclear talks between US and Iran postponed
- Message online from Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al-Busaidi made the announcement in a post on the social platform X
DUBAI: Planned negotiations between Iran and the United States this weekend over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program have been postponed, Oman announced Thursday.
A message online from Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al-Busaidi made the announcement in a post on the social platform X.
“For logistical reasons we are rescheduling the US Iran meeting provisionally planned for Saturday May 3rd,” he wrote. “New dates will be announced when mutually agreed.”
Al-Busaidi, who has mediated the talks through three rounds so far, did not elaborate.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei issued a statement describing the talks as being “postponed at the request of Oman’s foreign minister.” He said Iran remain committed to reaching ”a fair and lasting agreement.”
Meanwhile, a person familiar with the US negotiators said that America “had never confirmed its participation” in a fourth round of talks in Rome. However, the person said the US expected the talks to occur “in the near future.” The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations.
Rome soon will see the Vatican begin the conclave on Wednesday to pick a new pope after the death of Pope Francis. Two other rounds of talks have been held in Muscat, the capital of Oman.
The talks seek to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the US has imposed on the Islamic Republic closing in on a half-century of enmity. The negotiations have been led by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s program if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.
Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers did limit Tehran’s program. However, Trump unilaterally withdrew from it in 2018, setting in motion years of attacks and tensions. The wider Middle East also remains on edge over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, the US continues an airstrike campaign, called “Operation Rough Rider,” that has been targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who long have been backed by Iran. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth early Thursday warned Iran over the rebels.
“Message to IRAN: We see your LETHAL support to The Houthis. We know exactly what you are doing,” he wrote. “You know very well what the US Military is capable of — and you were warned. You will pay the CONSEQUENCE at the time and place of our choosing.”
Last Saturday’s round of talks, which included experts drilling down into the details of a possible deal, also took place as an explosion rocked an Iranian port, killing at least 70 people and injuring more than 1,000 others.
Israeli settlers perform ‘epic prostration’ after storming Al-Aqsa Mosque
- Israeli settlers regularly tour Al-Aqsa under the protection of Israeli police
- 13,064 settlers entered the site in the first quarter of 2025
LONDON: Dozens of Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem on Thursday, conducting a provocative tour in front of Palestinian worshippers.
Settlers regularly tour the site under the protection of Israeli police and are often accompanied by government officials and far-right ministers.
On Thursday, they performed Talmudic rituals in front of the Dome of the Rock Mosque, chanting loudly in the presence of Palestinian worshippers, eyewitnesses told the Wafa news agency.
Some settlers performed the Talmudic ritual known as “epic prostration,” in which the worshipper bows low to the ground in a display of humility and reverence, while others raised Israeli flags.
In April, thousands of Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa compound to mark the Jewish holiday of Passover. In the same month, several Arab countries condemned a video generated by artificial intelligence that depicted the destruction of Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock mosques, which was attributed to Israeli settlers.
The Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem governorate reported that 13,064 settlers visited the site in the first quarter of 2025.
Devastated father wonders why an Israeli strike killed his 4-year-old daughter
- That afternoon, an Israeli strike hit a tent on the side of the road, killing Massa and some of the other children
- “She had a ball on her lap with a doll in her hand. Will she fight them with her football or doll?” her father said
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Massa Abed, 4, brought a rubber ball and her doll to play with friends on the street near her family’s home on Sunday. It was a mundane day in Zawaida, the central Gaza town where the Abeds returned weeks ago, with calm largely restored in the area.
But that afternoon, an Israeli strike hit a tent on the side of the road, killing Massa and some of the other children.
Her older brother, 16, grabbed Massa’s little body and rushed to the hospital on a donkey cart. When she was pronounced dead, he wailed, holding her.
Days later, Massa’s father, Samy Abed, turned the green ball in his hand, describing the incident to The Associated Press.
“She had a ball on her lap with a doll in her hand. Will she fight them with her football or doll?” he said. “She’s 4 years old. What can she do? She can’t even carry a rock.”
The Israeli army did not respond to requests for comment on the strike, and it remains unclear why the area — near the city of Deir Al-Balah — was struck or who was targeted. Israeli officials have often blamed Hamas for civilian casualties, saying the Palestinian militant group regularly operates from residential areas and hospitals and accusing it using civilians as human shields.
Since Israel resumed attacksmore than a month ago, at least 809 children have been killed, said Zaher Al-Wahidi, a spokesperson with Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Overall, the ministry says, more than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, in October 2023. Ministry officials do not differentiate between civilians and militant deaths but say that more than half the dead have been women and children. Israel says it has killed over 20,000 militants, without providing details on those deaths.
On March 18, a surprise Israeli bombardment shattered a six-week ceasefire mediated by the US, Qatar and Egypt; hundreds of Palestinians were killed. Mediation efforts to restore the ceasefire have faltered, and Israel has vowed more devastation if Hamas doesn’t release the remaining hostages kidnapped in its rampage on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
That Hamas attack killed some 1,200 people and abducted 250 others. Israel says 59 hostages remain in captivity, at least 35 of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel has imposed a blockade on Gaza, not allowing food, medicine, or assistance to enter the strip. The United Nations World Food Program said its stockpiles that it used to feed over 600,000 people daily are empty. Israel says the blockade’s aim is to increase pressure on Hamas to release the rest of the hostages and to disarm.
At the hospital where Massa’s brother brought her, bodies of her young playmates lay nearby — a reminder, relatives said, of children in danger as attacks continue.
Massa had the confidence and bubbly personality of a teenager, socializing and conversing with everyone, her father said as he scrolled through photos and videos where she played and posed for the cameras.
He soon turned to photos of her body at the hospital.
“We see her when we’re asleep. When we wake up, we remember her,” he said.
Majdi Abed, Massa’s uncle, says he has regular visions of her. “I was sitting right here at 7 a.m., and I felt the girl coming toward me,” he said, describing how he frequently bursts into tears upon realizing it’s not really Massa.
The family still expects her to show up at their breakfast table.
But, her father said, “her spot is empty.”
