Latest Israel-Hamas War and Middle East News: Live Updates

Relatives and supporters of Israelis held hostage in Gaza started bonfires that partially blocked site visitors on a significant freeway in Tel Aviv on Friday morning, in an indication of rising frustration over the federal government’s failure to carry the remaining hostages dwelling.
Police officers detained seven protesters who had “participated in disorderly conduct and unlawful behavior,” questioned and then launched them, the police stated in an announcement. The police shortly cleared the freeway and restored the circulate of site visitors earlier than the start of the Israeli weekend.
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum, the principle group advocating for the hostages’ return, stated it had not organized the protest that blocked the Ayalon Highway and didn’t condone it. Though there may be broad-based help amongst Israelis for the Gaza marketing campaign, many have turn into more and more exasperated by the dearth of progress by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s authorities in bringing the hostages dwelling.
At a information convention on Thursday, some family members of captives accused Israel’s struggle cupboard of dragging its ft and referred to as on the federal government to hammer out a world deal for the hostages. “Stop lying to us,” stated Shir Siegel, whose father, Keith Siegel, 64, is among the many hostages. “You’re not doing everything you can.”
Daniel Elgart, whose brother Itzik was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz, informed Israeli TV on Friday that members of the family have been prepared to disrupt every day life, risking arrest and imprisonment, to get their family members again.
“We will have to do what the government isn’t doing,” he stated. “Maybe we will have to go ourselves and block humanitarian aid from going into Gaza.”
Eli Shtivi, whose son, Idan, is a hostage, introduced Friday that he started a starvation strike and urged different households to affix him in tenting out exterior Mr. Netanayahu’s dwelling in Caesarea, the place he stated he would wait till the prime minister comes out to talk with him. The youthful Mr. Shtivi was kidnapped from the Nova competition.
About 130 persons are believed nonetheless to be held captive in Gaza, out of greater than 240 who Israeli officers stated have been snatched from properties and military bases throughout the Hamas-led assaults on Oct. 7.
The Israeli navy’s offensive in Gaza, now in its fourth month, has did not safe the hostages’ freedom, and there aren’t any indicators of a deal for them with Hamas. More than 100 hostages have been launched throughout a weeklong cease-fire in November, in alternate for about 240 Palestinians held in Israeli jails, and calls in Israel for an additional such deal are rising.
The protest in Tel Aviv passed off the day after the youngest hostage, Kfir Bibas, who was kidnapped along with his dad and mom and 4-year-old brother from their dwelling in Nir Oz, had his first birthday. People in Tel Aviv and different components of Israel launched orange balloons in honor of the boy, a redhead, and lit candles on symbolic birthday desserts surrounded by items.
One protester briefly detained on Friday was Ayala Metzger, whose 80-year-old father-in-law, Yoram Metzger, stays captive in Gaza. Mr. Metzger has diabetes, struggles to stroll due to a beforehand damaged hip and has been with out drugs for 3 months, members of the family say.
His spouse Tami, 78, who was additionally kidnapped from their dwelling in Nir Oz, was launched in November.
“The time has come for my government and prime minister to bring us back my father-in-law and his friends,” Ayala Metzger stated, based on an interview with the Walla information website. She assailed Israel’s pullback of some floor troops, including: “The government is withdrawing forces from Gaza and forgetting the hostages there.”
In an announcement on Friday, the Israeli police stated that whereas the drive “firmly upholds the fundamental right to freedom of speech,” it could not tolerate threats to public order, “especially during times of war against a cruel terrorist organization.”
More protests have been anticipated all through the weekend. Several hundred demonstrators, largely women, rallied on Friday morning in Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff Square, the place cafes and eating places swelled with folks beginning their weekend, watched over by an unusually heavy police presence.
Protesters dragged a cage that held a feminine efficiency artist carrying a costume with a big pink stain on it, an allusion to the sexual violence Hamas militants dedicated on Oct. 7. Some 17 women, most of them younger adults, are nonetheless being held hostage.
Protesters referred to as out to folks in cafes to “put down your espressos” and take part. Many carried indicators saying: “A deal now!”
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