Protesters from women’s groups calling for an immediate deal to secure the release of hostages held in Gaza, block a number of junctions and streets across the country as part of a day of action.
Other activists try to prevent humanitarian aid from being transported into Gaza, saying that Israel should not facilitate its entry until the hostages are freed.
The central protest by women’s groups will be held in Tel Aviv this evening.
“We gathered here today to celebrate the Knesset’s birthday. I want to ask the Knesset: What is there to celebrate?” Lapid asks lawmakers at a special parliamentary session marking the Knesset’s 75th anniversary. “Do you see anyone else celebrating in the country?”
Israel has “never been sadder,” he says. “People walk around heartbroken. My heart breaks every day. Broken for the kidnapped, broken for the fighters who are killed, broken for the families.”
“The political system today is not the solution, it is the problem. The Knesset and the government are not the solution, they are the problem,” Lapid continues.
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have been forced out of their homes by the fighting and “no one has an answer to the question of when they will be able to return” while 136 Israeli are still being held captive in Gaza and “no one knows when they will return to their homes,” he says, arguing that Israel needs to “have not only a tactic, but also a strategy.”
“Every day more soldiers and more soldiers are killed, no one knows when it will end, what is the plan?” he asks.
While Israel will win the war, victory is about more than killing Hamas’s leaders, it is about “us being better,” he declares. “For the sake of life and for those who are being buried right now, we must make a change.”
