Thousands of Israelis have rallied in Tel Aviv to demand urgent government action to bring home hostages held in Gaza, after the bodies of several were retrieved, AFP reports.
Protesters observed a minute’s silence in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square in honour of the captives whose bodies were recovered by Israeli troops this month, an AFP correspondent reported.
The army said on Friday that troops had retrieved the bodies of three hostages in an overnight operation in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip. The remains of Chanan Yablonka, Brazilian-Israeli Michel Nisenbaum and French-Mexican Orion Hernandez Radoux “were rescued” and their families notified after forensic identification, the military said in a statement.
“In just a few hours, I will bury my 42-year-old brother… I feared this moment,” Yablonka’s sister Avivit said at Saturday’s rally. “They must be taken out of this hell now.”
The bodies of four other dead hostages — Ron Benjamin, Yitzhak Gelerenter, Shani Louk and Amit Buskila — were recovered last week. Another protest, calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and an early election, was held nearby.
