Israeli protesters raised concerns about the hostages in Gaza on Saturday after Qatar said it was withdrawing as a key mediator for a ceasefire that would help bring the prisoners home.
Thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv holding signs reading “400”, the number of days since the hostages were taken when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7 last year.
Efforts to broker a ceasefire in the ensuing war between Hamas and Israel have proven fruitless, and on Saturday Qatar suspended its mediation until the two sides showed “willingness and seriousness” during the talks.
Protester Ruti Lior said she was unsure how much influence Qatar had but was still “very, very concerned” about their decision to withdraw from the negotiations.
“This is further proof to me that there is really no seriousness and that these deals are being sabotaged,” the 62-year-old psychotherapist told AFP.
Fellow protester Gal expressed his disappointment with Qatar, saying it was good that the Gulf emirate was stepping back because it had done a “poor” job.
Qatar “failed in mediation, and not just them, others failed too,” the HR official said, also blaming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Saturday's rally featured masks representing Netanyahu, along with signs with the word “Guilty.”
Other signs read “Hostage Deal Now” and “Drop Your Gun, Stop the War.”
“How many more tears must be shed and how much more blood must be shed before someone does what needs to be done and brings our children home?” Niva Wenkert, mother of hostage Omer Wenkert, is quoted in a statement from campaign group Hostage and Missing Families Forum.
The Hamas attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed 43,552 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run Health Ministry, which the United Nations considers reliable.
Of the 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants in the October 7 attack, 97 remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.
Israelis protest weekly to pressure their government to do more to secure the prisoners' release.
Qatar, which has hosted Hamas's political leadership with US blessing since 2012, has been engaged in months of protracted diplomacy aimed at ending the war in Gaza.
But the talks, also mediated by Cairo and Washington, have repeatedly encountered problems since a weeklong ceasefire in November 2023 – the only one so far – with both sides trading blame for the standoff.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Our staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
