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SvennoJ on 05 July 2025
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Demonstrations in cities across Israel demand ceasefire, return of captives

Footage on social media shows large crowds of protesters marching in Israeli cities to demand a ceasefire deal to end the war and return citizens held captive in Gaza.

The protesters gathered in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and Be’er Sheva, beating drums, waving yellow flags, a symbol of support for the captives, and carrying portraits of those still held in Gaza.

Translation: The protest march in Jerusalem is marching on King George Street.

Translation: Beersheba – The people of Israel are eager for a single agreement – now – everyone, including everyone!

 

Netanyahu ‘certainly does not want to end the war in Gaza’

We’ve spoken to Omer Bartov, an Israeli-American scholar of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University, about the sticking point in negotiations: whether the ceasefire should be for 60 days or permanent.

Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu has said Hamas’s request for the deal to be for a permanent end to the war is unacceptable.

Bartov said he believes that Netanyahu “certainly does not want to end the war in Gaza”. “What he’s trying to negotiate is something that feels really cynical – both from the point of view of the war that is constantly happening in Gaza, and from the point of view of the families of the hostages,” he said.

He said this is because the ceasefire proposal only provides for the return of 10 Israeli captives held by Hamas, “out of presumably 20 who are still alive”.

“That will make it possible for [Netanyahu] at a certain point to say: ‘Hamas has not met all the conditions and, therefore, we have to resume the fighting’,” said Bartov. “And Hamas will have to accept that.”

He said that if Netanyahu stops fighting, it could lead to the fall of his government. “What he’s doing now is hedging his bets.”