MADRID, 18 (EUROPA PRESS)
At least six people have been arrested in Tel Aviv for allegedly disturbing public order and physically clashing with police during Sunday's marches, in which hundreds of thousands of people demanded that the Israeli government put the safety of hostages before the occupation of Gaza.
This was stated by the Israeli police in a statement released on its Telegram channel, in which it indicated that the arrested protesters "lit fires and tried to enter" the headquarters of Likud, the party of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Tel Aviv.
The police force also noted that "hundreds" of protesters "broke security cordons and blocked traffic routes, while clashing with police and blocking roads in Ayalon, endangering" pedestrians, although the majority of participants "have dispersed in a silent and orderly manner" and traffic routes have reopened at the end of the demonstrations.
More than 200,000 people, according to police estimates, have gathered in Tel Aviv, amid a nationwide strike, to demand that the Israeli prime minister prioritize the lives of the hostages before launching a new and, according to the army, "imminent" offensive to occupy Gaza City in an operation that could spell death.
After a morning of unrest with dozens of detainees in the city, the families and opposition leader Yair Lapid led a march, knowing that this morning Netanyahu reiterated that he will not suspend the operation under any circumstances and that the strike, informal in nature but supported by dozens of organizations and universities, diminishes the possibility of bringing back alive the 20 hostages believed to still be held by Palestinian militias.
The organizers, the Hostage Families Forum, have raised their attendance estimates to half a million people in Tel Aviv, and a total of one million, including other gatherings across the country, but authorities have not confirmed this estimate.
