War: Mass protests erupt in Israel

Thousands of grieving and angry Israelis took to the streets last night after six more hostages were killed in Gaza. The slogan “Now! Now!”, they demanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reach a ceasefire with Hamas to return the remaining hostages to Israel.

The mass protest appeared to be the largest of its kind in the 11-month war. The country is deeply divided, but protesters see it as a potential turning point.

Israel’s largest union, the Histadrut, stepped up pressure on the government by calling a general strike for today, the first since the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas that sparked the war. The strike aims to paralyze or affect key sectors of the economy, including banking, health services and the country’s main airport.

Ceasefire talks have been going on for months. Many blame Netanyahu Failing to reach an agreement, something that the majority of Israelis want, according to vote opinion However, the prime minister also has significant support for his “total victory” strategy against Hamas, even if it means waiting for a deal to return the hostages.

Thousands of people, some in tears, gathered outside Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem last night. In Tel Aviv, relatives of hostages paraded with coffins symbolizing dead hostages.

“We truly believe that the government is taking this decision not to save the lives of the hostages but to protect itself. We have to tell them, ‘Enough!'” said Tel Aviv resident Shlomit HaCohen.

Three of the six hostages found dead – including an Israeli-American – were reported dead They will be released in the first phase of a proposed ceasefire debate in July, which has only increased the anger and frustration of protesters.

“There’s nothing worse than knowing they could have been saved,” says Dana Lutali. “Sometimes it takes something terrible to shake people up and make them come out and protest.”

The Israeli military said the hostages were killed shortly before forces trying to rescue them arrived.

“He who kills hostages does not want a deal,” Netanyahu said, blaming Hamas for stalled talks.

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They identified the body

Israel’s Ministry of Health reported this information Autopsies concluded that the hostages were shot at point-blank range and died between Thursday and Friday.. The army said the bodies were recovered in a tunnel in the city of Rafah.

Polio vaccination campaign begins in Gaza

• Twenty-five years after polio was eradicated in Gaza, children under the age of ten in the center of the Strip came to be vaccinated on the first day of vaccination, after the virus re-emerged with at least one confirmed case, amid unsanitary living conditions. which the Palestinian people have suffered because of the war.
• At a clinic in Al Zawaida, dozens of fathers and mothers yesterday gathered around the person in charge of administering a few drops of the vaccine given to their children orally.
• “When I heard about the first case of polio I was very scared, since I am a mother of four,” explains Amal Al Henawi, a 34-year-old mother who took her family to the point of vaccination, the clinic.
• The minors in al-Jawaida are part of the first group of an estimated 640,000 children that authorities want to vaccinate in a two-round vaccination. According to Jonathan Cricox, UNICEF’s head of communications in Palestine, the first dose will be given by September 9 and the second at the end of the month.
• In this town in the heart of the Strip, volunteers store vaccine doses in small blue portable refrigerators provided by UNICEF, awaiting the arrival of minors.

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