ISRAEL’S government faced protests by its own citizens and continued international unease today over the conduct of its brutal assault on Palestinians in Gaza.
A series of shootings, including of three hostages who were waving a white flag, have added to mounting concerns about how Israel is pursuing its 10-week-old assault on the Gaza Strip.
Protesters in Israel have heaped pressure on the government to renew negotiations on freeing the hostages held by Hamas.
Scores of demonstrators set up tents outside the Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv on Saturday, vowing to stay until the government resumes hostage negotiations with the Islamist group that governs Gaza.
Former hostage Raz Ben-Ami, who was freed in the last exchange, said: “Israel must offer another hostage-release deal.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is also coming under pressure to scale back major combat operations in the run-up to a visit by US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin later this week.
Under intense pressure from protests in the US and plummeting poll ratings for President Joe Biden, Washington has expressed growing unease over civilian casualties, though it continues to provide Israel with vital military and diplomatic support.
The air and ground war has flattened large parts of northern Gaza, killed thousands of civilians and driven most of the population to the southern part of the besieged coastal enclave, where many are packed into crowded shelters and tent camps and surviving on a trickle of humanitarian aid.
Some 1.9 million Palestinians, nearly 85 per cent of Gaza’s population, have fled their homes.
The territory’s Health Ministry said the Israeli offensive had killed more than 18,700 Palestinians.
Hamas has insisted that no more hostages will be released until the war ends and that it will demand the release of large numbers of Palestinian prisoners in exchange.
During a week-long ceasefire at the end of November, the group freed over 100 of the more than 240 hostages it captured during its October 7 attack on southern Israel in exchange for the release of scores of Palestinian prisoners.
Tel Aviv admitted on Saturday that three hostages had been shot by Israeli troops despite them trying to signal that they posed no harm.
The hostages, all in their twenties, were killed on Friday in the Gaza City district of Shijaiyah, where Israeli troops are engaged in fierce fighting with Hamas.
An Israeli military official said the shootings had violated the army’s rules of engagement and were being investigated at the highest level.
Mr Netanyahu insisted that Israel would “continue to fight until the end,” with the goal of eliminating Hamas over its October 7 attack, which left 1,200 people dead.
