Thousands Join Israeli Strike

Israeli police blasted crowds with water cannons and made dozens of arrests on Sunday as thousands of protesters demanding a deal to free hostages in Gaza aimed to shut down the country with a one-day strike that blocked roads and closed businesses. Groups representing families of hostages organized the nationwide demonstrations as opposition grows in Israel over plans for a new military offensive in some of Gaza's most populated areas, which many fear could further endanger the remaining hostages, the AP reports. Fifty hostages remain, and 20 of them are believed to still be alive.

• The protests: Demonstrators gathered at dozens of places including outside politicians' homes, military headquarters, and along major highways. They blocked lanes and lit bonfires. Some restaurants and theaters closed in solidarity. One protester carried a photo of an emaciated Palestinian child from Gaza. Such images were once rare at Israeli demonstrations but now appear more often as outrage grows over conditions there for civilians after more than 250 malnutrition-related deaths.
• Demonstrators say: "We don't win a war over the bodies of hostages," demonstrators chanted in one of the largest and fiercest protests in 22 months of war. "The only way to bring (hostages) back is through a deal, all at once, without games," former hostage Arbel Yehoud said at a demonstration in Tel Aviv. Her boyfriend, Ariel Cunio, is still being held by Hamas.
• Benjamin Netanyahu's stance: The prime minister, who is balancing competing pressures including the potential for mutiny within his coalition, opposes any deal that leaves Hamas in power. "Those who today call for an end to the war without defeating Hamas are not only hardening Hamas' position and delaying the release of our hostages, they are also ensuring that the horrors of Oct. 7 will be repeated," Netanyahu said, referencing the Hamas-led attack in 2023 that killed some 1,200 people and sparked the war.

• Cabinet response: Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Sunday called the demonstrations "a bad and harmful campaign that plays into Hamas' hands, buries the hostages in the tunnels and attempts to get Israel to surrender to its enemies and jeopardize its security and future." When Israel agreed to a ceasefire that released hostages earlier this year, far-right members of his cabinet threatened to topple Netanyahu's government.
• The plan: The new offensive would require the call-up of thousands of reservists, another concern for many Israelis. It is not clear when Israel's military will begin the new offensive in the crowded Gaza City, Muwasi, and what Netanyahu has called the "central camps" of Gaza.
• In Gaza: The military body that coordinates its humanitarian aid to Gaza, COGAT, this weekend noted plans to forcibly evacuate people from combat zones to southern Gaza "for their protection." Designated "safe zones," however, also have been bombed during the war. Palestinians on Sunday insisted that they won't leave, arguing that there is "no safe place" in Gaza. "There are no humanitarian zones at all," said Raghda Abu Dhaher, who said she has been displaced 10 times during the war and now shelters in a school. Mohamed Ahmed also insisted that he won't move south. "Here is bombing and there is bombing," he said.