Protests Greet Netanhayu A Day After Gaza Carnage

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced fury from protesters outside Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, in Jerusalem, a day after he resumed the war in Gaza, shattering the two-month-old ceasefire with Hamas, CNN reported.

On Highway 1—the main road connecting Tel Aviv to Jerusalem—some protesters held a banner reading: “The future of the coalition or the future of Israel.”

The banner alludes to how, over nearly 18 months of war and fragile ceasefires, Netanyahu has been accused of prioritizing the solidity of his governing coalition over the security of his country, as well as the lives of Israeli hostages and Palestinians in Gaza.

Those accusations have been made with fresh anger after Israel bombarded Gaza overnight into Tuesday and killed more than 400 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, in one of the war’s deadliest days.

For Netanyahu, the resumption of war has helped shore up his shaky coalition amid his ongoing corruption trial and ahead of a key vote on Israel’s budget. But for many Israelis, the renewed fighting has stirred feelings of despair – and rage with the government. And for Palestinians, it means the end of the respite that lasted just two months.

Protesting alongside thousands outside the Knesset, Elias Shraga, chairman for the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, a legal watchdog, said that Netanyahu’s war in Gaza was being waged to keep him in power.