Netanyahu dismisses election calls as thousands protest in Tel Aviv

Jerusalem: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday dismissed the idea of holding early elections, while thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv for an anti-government protest.

Netanyahu has seen his popularity plummet in opinion polls since Hamas’ October 7 attack that sparked the devastating war in Gaza.

Anti-government protests that shook the country for much of 2023 have largely subsided during the war. Still, demonstrators again took to the streets of Tel Aviv Saturday night calling for new elections, which are not scheduled until 2026.

The crowd was much smaller than last years’ mass protests, numbering a few thousand, according to local media.

“I’d like to say to the government that you’ve had your time, you ruined everything that you can ruin. Now is the time for the people to correct all the things, all the bad things that you’ve done,” said one protester, his head wrapped in an Israeli flag.

Netanyahu was asked at a press briefing about calls within his own ruling Likud party to hold early elections right when the Gaza war ends.

“The last thing we need right now are elections and dealing with elections, since it will immediately divide us,” he said. “We need unity right now.”

Netanyahu also pledged to push on with the military campaign and said troops would move into the southern border city of Rafah.

Israeli forces carried out arrests in Gaza’s largest functioning hospital, health officials and the military said on Saturday, as airstrikes hit across the enclave and rain battered Palestinians taking shelter in Rafah.

Israeli forces raided the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Thursday as they pressed their war on Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that rules the enclave.

“Occupation forces detained a large number of medical staff members inside Nasser Medical Complex, which they (Israel) turned into a military base,” said Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra.

The Israeli military said it was hunting for militants in Nasser and had so far arrested 100 suspects on the premises, killed gunmen near the hospital and found weapons inside it.

Hamas has denied allegations that its fighters use medical facilities for cover. At least two released Israeli hostages have said they were held in Nasser and Israel has released pictures and videos supporting its claim that Hamas operates within medical compounds.

The Israeli incursion into the hospital has raised alarm about patients, medical workers and displaced Palestinians sheltering there.

About 10,000 people were seeking shelter at the hospital earlier this week, but many left either in anticipation of the Israeli raid or because of Israeli orders to evacuate, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

Further south in Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are sheltering, the winter cold added to already dire conditions when wind blew away some tents of the displaced and rain flooded others.

Key mediator Qatar said on Saturday that talks on a potential cease-fire deal in Gaza “have not been progressing as expected” in the past few days after good progress in recent weeks.

Speaking during the Munich Security Conference, Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdurrahman Al Thani, noted difficulties in the “humanitarian part” of the negotiations.

Netanyahu, who is under pressure to bring home remaining hostages taken in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, said he sent a delegation to cease-fire talks in Cairo earlier in the week at U.S. President Joe Biden’s request but doesn’t see the point in sending them again.

Hamas wants a permanent cease-fire in Gaza and the release of Palestinians held by Israel.

Reuters, AP