Thousands rally in Haifa to demand early elections to replace Netanyahu

Thousands of demonstrators call for early elections to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at a protest rally in Haifa.

Former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon, a Netanyahu ally-turned-critic, accuses him of creating the circumstances that allowed Hamas to launch the October 7 attack on Israel in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people and abducted around 240 to Gaza, The Times of Israel reports.

“The ultimate responsibility of the defendant,” Ya’alon says in reference to the prime minister’s corruption trial, “owes also to his insane policy that views Hamas as an asset and the Palestinian Authority as a liability.”

“He tried to buy Gaza and [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar with suitcases of cash, which Hamas used to arm itself and grow stronger and attack our cities and kill our citizens,” Ya’alon charges.

Organized by a left-leaning group called People’s Protest Haifa, the rally at Horev Center is the second major anti-government protest in the northern coastal city since October 7. Some participants of the rally, which is headlined “Authorized for Publication: Elections Now,” plan to continue from Haifa to Caesarea to protest near Netanyahu’s private residence there.