Several thousand people took part in a large anti-government demonstration in Tel Aviv on Saturday, three days before Israel’s parliamentary elections, a contest widely seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The rally was organised by the October Council, a group founded by families of victims and hostages of the 7 October 2023 attack, which is demanding accountability from those responsible for the security failures that allowed Hamas to carry out its assault on Israeli territory. In a post on X, the group described the event as a gathering three days before the elections to mark three years of struggle for truth, accountability and the establishment of a commission of inquiry to identify those responsible and the failures of the security services. The government has so far refused to set up such a commission.
A tight race with no clear winner
Speaking to AFP shortly before the rally began, Hadas Feuerstein, 68, said that “those who have governed us for the past four years did a terrible job.” She told AFP that Israel had never before found itself in such a situation. The latest polls show Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc locked in a close race with centrist Gadi Eisenkot, though projections suggest neither camp is on course to secure a majority on its own.
Source: CNA, AFP
