Israeli opposition chief Lapid vows to topple Netanyahu government

By Husameddin Salih and Gulsen Topcu

JERUSALEM (AA) - Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid pledged Saturday to work toward the fall of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and the return of Israeli hostages.

Addressing protesters, Lapid said Israel is in difficult days and the country needs most for Netanyahu 'to be out of our lives.'

"My job is to do everything so that at the right moment this power of yours will turn into political change," Lapid wrote X.

"I pledge to you, I swear to you, we will continue to work until that happens. This government will fall, this government will not last, we will send them home!" he added.

Thousands of demonstrators protested in several cities in Israel to demand an urgent prisoner exchange deal and early elections.

Tel Aviv believes 134 Israelis are being held in Gaza, while Israel is holding 9,000 Palestinians in its jails.

The armed wing of Hamas, Al-Qassam Brigades, announced Saturday the death of a British national in its custody in the Gaza Strip as a result of injuries sustained during an Israeli airstrike last month.

The Al-Qassam Brigades announced Tuesday the death of Judih Weinstein due to injuries she sustained from an Israeli bombardment on Gaza a month ago.

On Monday, the Israeli army began a military operation in Rafah taking control of the Palestinian side of the city’s crossing and closing it, disregarding mounting international warnings.

Israel has pounded Gaza in retaliation for an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas which killed less than 1,200 people.

Nearly 35,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have since been killed, and more than 78,600 injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Seven months into the conflict, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). An interim ruling in January said it is "plausible" that Tel Aviv is committing genocide in Gaza, ordering it to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

South Africa on Friday asked the ICJ to order Israel to withdraw from Rafah as part of additional emergency measures over the war.