Excuses have run out' Thousands call for PM's removal

Demonstrators join families of hostages in cities across the country and vow to persist until Netanyahu is ousted

- Lorenzo Tondo and Quique Kierszenbaum

Tens of thousands of people across Israel joined families of hostages last weekend to protest against the government and call for the removal of Benjamin Netanyahu, as the Israeli prime minister grappled with one of the most serious threats yet to his coalition.

The protesters in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Be'er Sheva, Caesarea and other cities last Saturday - and at a demonstration outside the Knesset in Jerusalem on Sunday - demanded the release of those held captive in Gaza after close to six months, and labelled Netanyahu an "obstacle to the deal", vowing to persist until he leaves power.

"It's been 176 days that I haven't turned a blind eye to the thoughts and fear of what my daughter and the other abductees are going through," said Shira Albag, the mother of the hostage Liri Albag. "The people of Israel won't forget or forgive anyone who prevents a deal that would bring them [the hostages] back to us. After 176 days... the excuses have run out."

Raz Ben-Ami, a former hostage freed nearly two months ago, said: "They [the hostages] won't last there; no one can survive what they go through there, believe me." 

Netanyahu was entering the most precarious week for his coalition since the war began as a deadline imposed by the Israeli supreme court to end the exemption for ultra-Orthodox men from military conscription was reached on Monday. The issue divides the coalition between rightwing religious and secular parties, who want to see conscription shared more equally among Jewish Israelis.