Hundreds of Israelis protest to demand hostage swap deal: Reports

Hundreds of Israelis demonstrated Saturday in Rehovot near Tel Aviv to demand the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli media outlet reported.

The protest occurred near Rehovot Science Park and also demanded early elections, according to the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

It said some families of the hostages in Gaza participated in the demonstration.

It is expected that the intensity of protests will increase, encompassing all of Israel.

Tel Aviv believes 134 Israelis are being held in Gaza, while Israel is holding 9,000 Palestinians in its jails.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on Gaza since the 7 October Hamas incursion, which killed around 1,200 people.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

Tel Aviv, in comparison, has killed nearly 34,600 Palestinians and wounded 77,700 others amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities in the Palestinian Territory.

More than six months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85 per cent of the enclave’s population into internal displacement besides a crippling blockade on food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which, in January, issued an interim ruling that ordered it to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

READ: Israel sets one-week deadline for Hamas deal or threatens Rafah offensive: Report