Thousands of demonstrators marched through Tel Aviv on Saturday, from Rabin Square to Hostages Square, in the largest anti-government rally of Israel’s election campaign, three days before Tuesday’s vote. The march was organised by the October Council, formed by families of those killed or taken hostage in the Hamas led attack of October 7, 2023, to demand a state commission of inquiry into the failures that allowed the attack.
Leaders of the four main opposition parties attended, including Gadi Eisenkot, the former military chief of staff who is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s leading challenger and who was received warmly by the crowd. The October Council described the event as the culmination of three years of struggle to uncover the truth and establish accountability. Democrats leader Yair Golan said a new government would establish the commission starting the day after the election.
The demand is the campaign’s sharpest institutional divide. Netanyahu has refused an independent state commission and proposed a political commission instead, which the opposition rejects. The final polls published before a blackout took effect on Friday night showed neither side able to govern alone: public broadcaster KAN projected 52 seats for Eisenkot’s bloc and 50 for Netanyahu’s in the 120 seat Knesset, with the remainder held by parties outside both blocs, including Arab parties.
That arithmetic is why Tuesday’s count may not settle the government. It also frames the other Israel story in this edition: the closure of all West Bank crossings on election day, announced on Sunday as the Hebron operation continues, which the existing West Bank story has been updated to carry.