Thousands of people marched in Tel Aviv toward Hostages Square ahead of Israel’s election on Tuesday, the first since the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023. AFP journalists saw the crowd heading to the esplanade, named during the war in Gaza as the place for weekly demonstrations calling for the return of people abducted by Hamas.
The rally was organised by the October Council, a group founded by families of victims and hostages of 7 October. It is demanding a commission of inquiry into the security failures that allowed the attack by Palestinian Hamas, described as the deadliest in the country’s history. Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has so far refused to establish such a commission, although many Israelis have called for one.
The main opposition figures standing on Tuesday have all promised to set up the inquiry if they win. Israeli public television reported that they appeared at the rally. The prime minister’s chief rival, centrist and former army chief Gadi Eisenkot, received a warm welcome. During the campaign he has strongly criticised the handling of 7 October and the conduct of the war in Gaza. Also present were current opposition leader Yair Lapid, his ally Naftali Bennett, former defence minister Avigdor Liberman and Democrats leader Yair Golan.
The last polls permitted for publication, released on Friday evening, remained close: 50 seats for Netanyahu’s bloc and 52 for the opposition bloc formed around Eisenkot, short of the 61 seats needed in the Knesset to govern. Eisenkot planned a final campaign event on Sunday, and Bennett and Lapid were due to meet supporters in Tel Aviv. The others, including Netanyahu, had announced nothing for the time being.
Organisers described the gathering, held three days before the election, as the culmination of three years of struggle for the truth and for accountability. Hadas Feuershtein, 68, told AFP shortly before the rally that those who had led the country for the past four years had done a lamentable job and that Israel had never been in such a situation. Organisers had said they feared possible provocations by pro-government activists. Police said a 23-year-old man accused of attacking Naftali Bennett’s security team had been arrested.
Naama Bitterman, 18, who is voting for the first time, hopes an anti-Netanyahu bloc will win and halt the deterioration of Israel’s image abroad after three years of devastating war in Gaza, conflict with Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah, and increasingly violent settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. She said she believes that if her side wins, it can change the way the world sees Israel.
Following a British initiative, several countries including France have recently imposed sanctions on products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law, in response to the surge in settlements and the spread of violence. Netanyahu, who since 2022 has led one of the most right-wing governments in the country’s history, suggested on Friday that Israel might have to develop an alternative economy to get around international sanctions, including banking measures. Opponents mocked him on Saturday. On X, Eisenkot said Netanyahu was claiming that another term would disconnect Israel from the world economy, with no online shopping, no high-tech investment and no security, and argued that bbcoin must not destroy Israel, referring to the prime minister’s nickname Bibi.