According to organizers, some 100,000 people gathered in Jerusalem this Sunday to protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuand demand early elections over his leadership of the war in the Gaza Strip, which is approaching six months.

For the first time, the anti-government protests were joined by relatives of hostages kidnapped by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, who also demanded an agreement to facilitate the release of the 130 captives still remaining in the enclave.

This is the largest protest in Israel since the war began. 100,000 protestersaccording to the organizers.

“If you can’t bring them back, step aside, walk away. We need someone in his place who can do it,” he said during protest daughter of Hannah Katzir, one of the hostages released during the seven-day truce between Israel and Hamas last November.

The Prime Minister, speaking to the media during the march, assured that announce early elections This would only paralyze negotiations for the release of the abducted people. “Hamas will be the first to thank,” he said.

Netanyahu assured that he is doing everything in his power to return hostagesbut that the Islamist group’s demands at the talks in Doha, Qatar, “pose a danger to national security.”

The protesters don’t think so. “Netanyahu does not want the hostages to return home because he knows that in this case he will have to stand trial and could go to prison. That’s why this is taking so long. war“, said EFE Maya Gal, 70, who marched against the government this Sunday.

According to Maya, the president “doesn’t even care soldiers Not even the hostages, but their political interests.”

Netanyahu’s opposition leader Yair Lapid criticized the authorities’ decision not to cancel the spring break in the Knesset (parliament), which will last six weeks and begin on April 7.