Israeli protesters call for early polls to oust PM Netanyahu

Thousands of people demonstrated in central Tel Aviv on Saturday, calling for the return of hostages held in Gaza and early elections to oust Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Demonstrators marched through the city's Habima Square, a frequent protest site, with some carrying signs calling Netanyahu "the face of evil" and demanding "elections now".

Protesters demanding the return of hostages also gathered in Haifa and outside the premier's Jerusalem residence.

Netanyahu is under intense pressure to secure the return of the hostages seized by Hamas on October 7, with the group on Monday announcing the deaths of two more of its captives.

Avi Lulu Shamriz, the father of Alon Shamriz, a hostage mistakenly killed by Israeli troops earlier in the war, told AFP in Tel Aviv Netanyahu's war cabinet was heading for disaster.

"The way we're going, all the hostages are going to die. It's not too late to free them," he said.

In a briefing on Saturday evening, military spokesman Daniel Hagari said troops had found a tunnel in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip where some hostages had been kept.

"We found evidence indicating the presence of hostages," he said. This evidence included paintings, including by a five-year-old captive.

He said "about 20 hostages" had been held in the tunnel at different times "in difficult conditions without daylight... with little oxygen and terrible humidity".

Soldiers entered the tunnel where they encountered militants and fought a battle in which "the terrorists were eliminated", Hagari said.

Netanyahu's coalition has increasingly come under attack from rival politicians and critics over his handling of the war.

Another protester, Yael Niv, said Israel desperately needed a new government to correct the country's course.

'Messianic elements'

The 50-year-old said "the messianic elements in our government" were a major danger to Israel, as she handed out stickers urging the return of the hostages.

"Eliminating Hamas is not going to happen through war and the escalation of violence," she added.

Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas in response to the Palestinian group's unprecedented October 7 attacks which resulted in the deaths of about 1,140 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

During the attacks, Hamas seized about 250 hostages, around 132 of whom Israel says remain in Gaza. At least 27 captives are believed to have been killed, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Israel's retaliatory bombardment and ground offensive have killed at least 24,927 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas government's health ministry.

Netanyahu has vowed not to end Israel's war in Gaza until Hamas are "eliminated", drawing criticism from his rivals and even from within his war cabinet that his goals are unclear.

"Everybody in the country apart from his poisonous coalition knows that his decisions are not for the good of the country, he is only trying to stay in office," 69-year-old demonstrator Yair Katz said.

"We all want to see him resign, but he'll never do it by his own means."

Even before the war with Hamas broke out on October 7, Netanyahu faced regular mass protests against the legal reforms his government was trying to push through.

The reforms aimed to curb the powers of the judiciary, a move seen by opponents as a threaten to Israel's democracy.

/KN/