(2 Sep 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tel Aviv, Israel – 2 September 2024
1. Top shot of protesters blocking main road in Tel aviv
2. Various of protesters blocking road, waving banners and Israeli flags
3. Pan of protest
4. Mid of protester carrying banner reading (English) “Seal the deal”
5. Top shot of protest
6. Protester standing in front of bus, carrying banner reading (English) “Help”
7. Pan of protest
8. Various of protest
STORYLINE:
Hundreds of Israeli protesters blocked a main road in Tel Aviv on Monday to protest the failure to return hostages held in Gaza.
The protest is part of a rare call for a general strike by Israel’s largest trade union, the Histadrut.
The strike is the first since the start of the war. It aims to shut down or disrupt major sectors of the economy, including banking, health care and the country’s main airport.
Protesters are demanding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reach a deal to return the remaining roughly 100 hostages held in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead, even if it means leaving a battered Hamas intact and withdrawing from the territory.
Many Israelis support this position, but others prioritize the destruction of the militant group over freedom for the hostages.
Netanyahu has pledged “total victory” over Hamas and blames it for the failure of the negotiations, which have dragged on for much of this year.
Israel said the six hostages found dead over the weekend in Gaza were killed by Hamas shortly before Israeli forces arrived in the tunnel where they were being held.
Three of them were reportedly scheduled to be released in the first phase of a cease-fire proposal discussed in July.
The Israeli Health Ministry said autopsies had determined the hostages were shot at close range and died on Thursday or Friday.
Netanyahu blamed Hamas, saying "whoever murders hostages doesn’t want a deal.”
Hamas blamed their deaths on Israel and the United States, accusing them of dragging out the talks by issuing new demands, including for lasting Israeli control over two strategic corridors in Gaza.
Hamas has offered to release the hostages in return for an end to the war, the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including high-profile militants.
Some 250 hostages were taken on Oct. 7. More than 100 were freed during a cease-fire in November in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Eight have been rescued by Israeli forces. Israeli troops mistakenly killed three Israelis who escaped captivity in December.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, when they stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not say how many were militants.
The offensive has displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, often multiple times, and plunged the besieged territory into a humanitarian catastrophe.
AP video shot by Ami Ben Tov
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