Israel’s war on Gaza updates: Protests in Tel Aviv after captive deaths

To learn more about the largest Israeli demonstrations in months, click here.

To keep up to date on one of the largest Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank in recent years, read this.

And to follow along with all our coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, go here.

This live page will soon be closed. Here’s a quick look at the latest news:

• On the first day of the campaign, 72,611 children in Gaza were vaccinated against the poliovirus, raising hope that the goal of 640,000 kids can be achieved over the coming days.
• Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Israel after the bodies of six captives were recovered from a tunnel in southern Gaza.
• Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich asked the country’s attorney general to submit an urgent request to the courts to block a planned nationwide strike which aims to pressure Netanyahu’s government to bring back Israeli captives held in Gaza.
• Israel’s deadly incursion into the occupied West Bank has entered its sixth day with at least 26 Palestinians killed and vast destruction inflicted.
• The armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad said its fighters “have entered a new phase of manufacturing and producing explosive devices” to battle Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli police have cleared demonstrators blocking a key road in Tel Aviv after a night of sometimes violent protests over the war on Gaza.

“During the illegal demonstration, police forces in Tel Aviv arrested 29 suspects who violated the order, attacked policemen and rioted with brutality and vandalism,” police said in a statement on X.

“All the roads have been cleared of protesters and the roads are gradually being opened to vehicle traffic.”

Thousands of people, some of them weeping, gathered outside Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office in West Jerusalem. In Tel Aviv, captives’ relatives marched with coffins to symbolise the death toll.

“We really think the government is making these decisions for its own conservation and not for the lives of the hostages, and we need to tell them, ‘Stop!'” said Shlomit Hacohen, a Tel Aviv resident.

Three of the six captives found dead in Gaza in recent days were reportedly scheduled to be released in the first phase of a ceasefire proposal discussed in July. This fuelled fury and frustration among the protesters.

“Nothing is worse than knowing they could have been saved,” said demonstrator Dana Loutaly. “Sometimes it takes something so awful to shake people up and get them out into the streets.”

For decades, world leaders have said the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is simple: two states – Israel and Palestine – next to each other.

But if the answer is so simple, what’s stopping it from happening? And is it even the right solution?

Armed Palestinian groups from Jenin in the occupied West Bank say fighting with Israeli forces is ongoing.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Jenin said it’s using small-arms fire and improvised explosive devices to battle the Israeli military.

“We are engaged in fierce clashes with occupation forces in the town of Al-Silah Al-Harithiya and have inflicted confirmed injuries on them,” the armed group said.

The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, issued a video statement saying that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu chose to maintain troops in the Philadelphi Corridor between Egypt and the Gaza Strip rather than getting Israeli captives back alive.

The video came hours after the Israeli army said it recovered the bodies of six abductees the southern Gaza Strip.

The video addressed the Israeli army: “What kind of heroism is this? And you are retrieving them as corpses after deliberately killing them? Indeed, they were alive and were supposed to be released in the first phase of the [ceasefire] deal.”

Al Jazeera is reporting from outside Israel because it has been banned by the Israeli government

These were essentially spontaneous protests that started earlier in the day after the announcement that the Israeli army had retrieved the bodies of six captives from Gaza.

And it sparked a lot of outrage because, according to Israeli military assessments, they were alive just a few days ago and these captives were supposed to be on the list of those to be released in the first phase of a deal – but there wasn’t a deal.

So the anger from the Israeli public spilled onto the streets. Police ended up using force against these demonstrators, firing stun grenades which is a first at these protests, then dragging these protesters away.

Just last night, you had police mounted on horseback who trampled the sister of one of the Israeli captives.

Israeli forces bombed the al-Araj residential apartment, located northwest of Gaza City, said the Palestinian Civil Defence agency.

Two people were killed as a result of the bombing with several more injured. “Our crews are heading to the location,” it said.

Israel’s ongoing military assault in the occupied West Bank is the largest of its kind since 2002. At least 26 Palestinians have been killed since Wednesday.

It marks a significant escalation from the increased army attacks and settler violence that has occured since October 7. Why is this happening now?

On the first day of the campaign, 72,611 children in Gaza were vaccinated against the poliovirus, raising hope the goal of 640,000 kids can be achieved over the coming days.

Polio can cause paralysis of the limbs or even death in children. The vaccination drive comes after the virus was discovered last month after 25 years, highlighting the collapse of Gaza’s health infrastructure after almost 11 months of nonstop Israeli bombardment.

Hamas and Israel agreed to pause fighting in areas of Gaza for at least eight-hours daily from Sunday to Tuesday to allow the World Health Organization and Palestinian medics to begin a complex operation to vaccinate 640,000 children.

Demonstrators set off flares on a road they blocked in Tel Aviv, calling on Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to do more to bring home the remaining captives in Gaza.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets after the bodies of six captives were recovered from a tunnel in Gaza on Saturday.

At the end of the first day, Gaza’s health ministry said at least 72,611 children had taken the polio vaccine.

Juliette Touma, communications director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), said the vaccination campaign is massive and “one of the most complex in the world”.

“Today is test time for parties to the conflict to respect these area ‘pauses’ to allow the UNRWA teams and other medical workers to reach children with these very precious two drops. It’s a race against time,” Touma said.

Israel and Hamas, who have so far failed to conclude a deal that would end the war, said they would cooperate to allow the campaign to succeed.

Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has asked the country’s attorney general to submit an urgent request to the courts to block a planned nationwide strike that aims to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to bring back Israeli captives held in Gaza.

In his letter to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, Smotrich argued a strike had no legal basis since it aimed to improperly influence significant policy decisions of politicians on issues related to “state security”.

He also said a broad strike – which would shut the country including outgoing international flights – has significant economic consequences that would cause unnecessary economic damage in wartime.

The call for a one-day general strike by Arnon Bar-David, whose Histadrut union represents hundreds of thousands of workers, is backed by Israel’s main manufacturers and entrepreneurs in the high-tech sector. The stoppage would begin at 6am (03:00 GMT).

Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA spokeswoman Louise Wateridge says everything is going to plan in the Gaza Strip’s polio vaccination campaign.

The United Nations, in collaboration with Palestinian health authorities, began to vaccinate 640,000 children in central Gaza on Sunday. The campaign will move to other parts of the besieged coastal enclave in the coming days.

Speaking in Deir el-Balah, Wateridge said: “The humanitarian pause is so far lasting, which is what we need to implement this vaccine campaign, and we will see how things go over the coming days.”

The campaign comes after the confirmation last month that a baby was partially paralysed by type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the Palestinian territory in 25 years.

This comes after Israel destroyed the healthcare system in Gaza, decimated sewage networks, and cut off potable water to the population.

AFT President Randi Weingarten has expressed her support for the Israeli labour movement’s call for a general strike to push the Netanyahu government to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.

“The Histadrut and its leader Arnon Bar-David are using workers’ critical clout to call a general strike to end this war and bring the Israeli hostages home. We support them and this action to halt Israel’s economy to send a message to the Netanyahu government to end this war,” she said in a statement.

The AFT represents 1.8 million people in the United States – from teachers to higher education faculty and professional staff as well as nurses and healthcare workers.

“It is unconscionable that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has refused to seal a ceasefire deal with Hamas that would bring the hostages home and end the humanitarian crisis of Gaza. We have called for an end to this war since January. In Netanyahu’s obstinance, he has refused to listen, even to his own military and security experts,” Weingarten added.