About 50 Israel Defense Forces reservists gathered in front of the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on Tuesday to demand that the fighting in Gaza not stop until Hamas is defeated.
Government ministers and members of Knesset joined the reservists at the protest site, including Education Minister Yoav Kisch, Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli and lawmakers Hanoch Milwidsky, Danny Danon and Moshe Saada of the Likud Party and Yitzhak Kreuzer of Otzma Yehudit.
They called on all reservists released from the Gaza Division to join them at the Jerusalem protest “with equipment and to sleep here with us.”
The reservists are calling for a clear policy regarding the Gaza Strip that includes encouraging the voluntary migration of some of the coastal enclave’s residents and transferring a significant amount of Gaza territory to Israeli control.
A large majority of Israelis oppose acceding to U.S. demands to shift to a less intensive phase of the war against Hamas in Gaza, a survey published by the Israel Democracy Institute shows.
Sixty-six percent of respondents reject the Biden administration’s calls to change the IDF’s strategy to one that “reduces the heavy bombing of densely populated areas.”
When broken down by ethnicity and political affiliation, 75% of Jewish Israelis oppose the change, including 72% of Jews in the political center and 87% of right-wing Jews.
