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Israeli protesters disrupt Netanyahu’s speech as peace talks continue in Gaza | Israel-Palestine Conflicts News

Israeli protesters disrupted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at a memorial for the victims of the October 7 attacks as talks to end violence in Gaza resumed in Doha, Qatar.

Netanyahu stood motionless on the podium during Sunday’s event as the crowd shouted, interrupting him for more than a minute, according to a live broadcast of the speech. Some people shouted “Shame on you” and created chaos, forcing Netanyahu to stop his speech shortly after it began.

One of the protestors kept shouting over and over again, “My father has been killed”.

According to a report by the Times of Israel, the memorial was initially not intended to include speeches by members of the family of the deceased, fearing that they would criticize the Israeli government. But amid protests, family members were allowed to present their speeches at the event.

An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas attack on October 7 last year, and more than 200 were captured. About 100 hostages remain in Gaza.

Public and rhetorical pressure has been mounting on the Netanyahu administration to do more to secure a deal to secure the release of prisoners still being held in Gaza.

Meanwhile, Egyptian President Adel Fattah el-Sisi on Sunday made the first proposal to stop the two-day conflict in Gaza in order to exchange four Israeli prisoners with Palestinian prisoners.

El-Sisi made the announcement as part of an effort to end the devastating war, which has raged for a year in Gaza and resumed in the Qatari capital Doha with the heads of the CIA and Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency involved.

Speaking to Algerian President Adelmadjid Tebboune at a press conference in Cairo, el-Sisi also said that talks should resume within 10 days of the temporary suspension of efforts to reach a permanent settlement.

The families of the remaining hostages, as well as several Western leaders, called on the Israeli government to make a deal after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar earlier this month.

Reporting from Doha, Al Jazeera’s Osama bin Javaid said Sinwar’s death offered a new opportunity for talks to end the war, but in reality, both sides were “digging in their heels”.

“Hamas says that the removal of the leadership, does not take away what they were fighting for, which means “doing illegal work,” Javaid commented.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu speaks during a ceremony to mark the Hebrew calendar for the October 7 attack by Hamas last year. [Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP]

Netanyahu is accused of obstructing peace efforts

Meanwhile, critics in Israel have accused Netanyahu of blocking the mediation of a peace deal and the release of hostages to free the 97 hostages still being held by armed groups in Gaza. The Israeli army said 34 of them were killed.

Netanyahu rejected ceasefire proposals, including one from the US administration in May, and authorized the assassination of Islamil Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas who had been negotiating, in Tehran. Hamas has been demanding an end to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, which has been bombarded by Israel for more than a year. More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, 2023.

Israel’s right-wing administration is pushing for a military solution, having opened a new front after it launched a ground offensive in southern Lebanon against the militant group Hezbollah.

In a separate speech on Sunday, marking the Hebrew calendar to commemorate the attack by Hamas, which on October 7 led to an ongoing war in Gaza, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that military action itself will not achieve the goals of the country’s war, including bringing about an ongoing war in Gaza. home captives.

“Not all objectives can be achieved through military action alone … In order to accomplish our mission of bringing hostages home, we will have to make a painful compromise,” Gallant said.


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