Tens of thousands of people demonstrated last night in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities to demand once again a government shutdown agreement for the release of hostages which is still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip from October 7.

The participants in the mobilization demanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war in the besieged and devastated Palestinian enclave so that a deal could be struck to exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, Haaretz newspaper noted in its digital edition.

According to the Forum of Families of Hostages and the Disappeared, yesterday’s demonstration was the largest since the armed conflict began.

The Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7 when the Palestinian Islamist movement’s military wing launched an unprecedented raid on southern sectors of Israeli territory that killed 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to a count based on official Israeli data.

Another 251 people were kidnapped, of which 116 are still being held hostage in the Gaza Stripbut 41 are believed to be dead, according to the Israeli military.

In retaliation, the Israeli armed forces have launched wide-scale operations in the Gaza Strip that have killed at least 37,296 people, most of them civilians, according to health ministry data in the Hamas-ruled enclave.

The plan presented on May 31 by US President Joe Biden to declare a cease-fire — it was an Israeli proposal, according to him — does not seem to have much chance of being implemented, as the parties remain steadfast in their positions.

Hamas demands “a timetable for a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.” Claims rejected by the government of Mr. Netanyahu, who keeps insisting that the war will continue until the Palestinian Islamist movement is eliminated.