9 anti-government protesters arrested near Tel Aviv

JERUSALEM

The Israeli police on Wednesday arrested nine protesters after they blocked a highway near Tel Aviv, demanding early elections and a prisoner swap deal with the Hamas group.

The protesters holding a big banner reading "enough of the government of destruction" blocked traffic on the Morasha Junction, and burned tires on the road.

The police intervened to clear the highway of the protesters and arrested nine of them.

In recent weeks, Israeli opposition parties along with families of Israeli captives held in Gaza escalated protests to pressure the Israeli government to go for a prisoner swap deal with the Hamas group.

Indirect talks have resumed this week in both Cairo and Doha as Israeli delegations were dispatched to both capitals.

Egypt, Qatar, and the US have been trying for months to secure a truce and the release of 120 remaining hostages in Gaza, but to no avail, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists on continuing the war until the full defeat of the Hamas group in Gaza.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.

Nearly 38,200 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 87,900 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Nine months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara