Israel launched a wave of overnight airstrikes in Gaza, targeting over 100 locations tied to Hamas, including militant infrastructure, tunnel networks, and known hideouts. The intense bombardment came just hours after cease-fire talks in Doha collapsed, marking yet another dead end in efforts to end the months-long conflict.
While Israeli jets pounded the Gaza Strip, thousands of protesters filled the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday, demanding the immediate release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas. Demonstrators gathered outside the Defense Ministry headquarters, calling on the government to do more to secure the freedom of the 58 Israeli captives still believed to be in Gaza—though at least 35 are presumed dead, according to military estimates.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing growing international pressure, issued sharp criticism of Western leaders. Speaking in a televised address Thursday night, Netanyahu slammed officials from France, the UK, and Canada for urging an end to the Israeli offensive and threatening to take “concrete action” if hostilities continue.
“They’re emboldening Hamas to keep fighting,” Netanyahu said. “This is not the way to bring peace. You are on the wrong side of history.”
The prime minister maintained that Israel will not stop its operations until Hamas is fully disarmed and removed as a governing force in Gaza. That uncompromising stance was echoed by one of the freed hostages, Agam Berger, who met with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot in Paris this weekend. Berger, who spent 473 days in captivity following her abduction on October 7, dismissed diplomatic efforts as naïve.
“These diplomatic solutions, I don’t know what to call them. They won’t work,” Berger told Barrot, according to The Times of Israel. “If it were possible to avoid war, we would. But this is a fight for the existence of our land.”
Barrot later called the conditions in which hostages were held “inhumane” and declared that Hamas must be excluded from Gaza’s future governance. “All the hostages must be freed. Now,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Hamas must be disarmed.”
The backdrop to these tensions includes mounting humanitarian concerns. Recent reports showed looting of aid trucks in Gaza following a partial easing of Israel’s blockade, underscoring the desperate conditions civilians continue to endure. At the same time, images from the region showed destroyed homes and efforts to recover remains after Israeli airstrikes, adding urgency to the calls for a resolution.
According to Israeli officials, Hamas captured 251 hostages during its brutal incursion on October 7, 2023. Of the 58 hostages who remain, only 20 are currently believed to be alive. Hamas has indicated that it will only agree to release the captives in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the release of Palestinian prisoners, and a permanent cease-fire—terms Netanyahu has flatly rejected.
With diplomacy on pause and the battlefield heating up, the war shows little sign of slowing, as both sides brace for what could be another prolonged chapter in a bitter, ongoing struggle.
