Israeli protesters stage ‘day of disruption’ as more strikes hit Gaza City
Protesters took to Israel’s streets for what they called a “day of disruption” on Wednesday, denouncing the call-up of tens of thousands of reservists for an offensive that has drawn global condemnation and fuelled fears in Israel it could endanger hostages still held in Gaza.
The demonstrators accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet of failing to secure a ceasefire deal and instead intensifying an invasion that hospitals in Gaza say in its initial stages is already accelerating a rise in fatalities.
“We have to take an extreme action so that someone will remember. There’s no such thing as a state abandoning its citizens,” Yael Kuperman, a protester near the Knesset told Israeli public broadcaster Kan.
Meanwhile, hospital officials told the Associated Press at least 24 people were killed in strikes overnight into Wednesday.
Nasser Hospital said it received 10 bodies, including one aid-seeker in Rafah and a child killed by a strike in southern Gaza.
Shifa Hospital said the bodies of 14 people, including two children and four women, arrived on Wednesday while Al-Quds Hospital said it received another person killed by Israeli strikes.
Israel says that Gaza City – the largest Palestinian city in either the besieged strip or the occupied West Bank – remains a Hamas stronghold above what military officials claim is a vast, underground tunnel network, even after raids earlier in the war.
Israel has intensified air and ground assaults on the outskirts of Gaza City, particularly in western neighbourhoods where people are being driven to flee toward the coast, according to humanitarian groups that co-ordinate assistance for the displaced.
Site Management Cluster, one such group, said on Wednesday that families were trapped by the prohibitively high cost of moving, logistical hurdles and a lack of places to go.
“Palestinians are also reluctant to move due to the fear of not being able to return or exhaustion from repeated displacement,” it said.
Gaza’s health ministry reported on Tuesday that 63,633 Palestinians have been killed, including more than 2,300 seeking aid, since the war started October 7 2023, with a Hamas-led attack on Israel.
Part of the Hamas-run government but staffed by medical professionals, the ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says women and children make up around half of the dead.
UN agencies and many independent experts consider the ministry’s figures to be the most reliable estimate of war casualties. Israel disputes them, but has not provided its own toll.
Also on Wednesday, the United Arab Emirates warned that any Israeli move to annex the occupied West Bank would be a “red line”, without specifying its possible impact on the landmark normalisation accord between the two countries.
The UAE was the driving force behind the 2020 Abraham Accords brokered by US President Donald Trump, in which it and three other Arab countries forged ties with Israel.
Mr Trump has said he hopes to expand the accords in his second term, potentially to include regional power Saudi Arabia.
Anwar Gargash, a senior Emirati diplomat, wrote on the social platform X that “annexation is a red line”.
