Israel-Hamas Conflict: poll shows over 60% of people support pause for hostage release as Israel step up offensive; London rally calls for Gaza ceasefire

An opinion poll in Israel shows that more than 60 percent of people support another deal for the release of hostages in exchange for a pause in the fighting.

Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv released the survey results on Friday, amid intensifying ground offensives by Israeli forces in the southern Gaza Strip, targeting Hamas. The Islamic group is still believed to be holding about 130 hostages.

The survey also asked who respondents preferred as prime minister, between current leader Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition party leader Benny Gantz, a former defense minister.

Gantz had the support of 46 percent of respondents, beating out Netanyahu, on 34 percent, up three percentage points from the previous survey. But the report says more people who voted for Netanyahu’s Likud Party in the previous election are now supporting him.

Health authorities in Gaza say the death toll in the enclave has now passed 20,000.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Friday his forces will step up their offensive in southern Gaza with the goal of fully dismantling Hamas.

Gallant said that the operation in northern Gaza is gradually dismantling Hamas battalions and achieving denial of their underground capabilities. He said Israeli forces are also operating in the Khan Younis area, where senior Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is believed to be hiding.

He said Sinwar now hears Israeli forces’ vehicles above him and bombings by Israel’s Air Force, adding that he will “meet our gunners soon.”

But in rebuttal, Hamas issued a statement on Friday that dismissed Gallant’s claims as “an empty threat.”

The Israeli military on Friday released footage of the inside of an underground tunnel purportedly filmed by a camera attached to a dog.

It said the tunnel stretched hundreds of meters and included command and communication rooms.

Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari told reporters that soldiers uncovered “significant underground terror infrastructure” in Gaza City and destroyed the entire tunnel.

He said Israeli forces will continue their operations against Hamas tunnels and ultimately make it impossible for the group to launch attacks against Israel from its tunnel network.

Meanwhile, around 200 people, some with children, have held a demonstration in central London to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

The rally took place in front of Westminster Abbey on Friday. It was organized by a group working to protect the human rights of the Palestinian people.

The demonstrators recreated the scene of Christ’s Nativity with gray boxes simulating rubble in Gaza and handmade dolls wrapped in the traditional “keffiyeh” Palestinian cloth instead of the infant Jesus sleeping in a crib.

Participants sang carols with revised lyrics that referred to the suffering of the Palestinians.

Chanting slogans such as “Stop bombing Gaza,” they then marched to the Foreign Ministry to protest the British government’s refusal to call for an immediate ceasefire.

A woman carrying her two-year-old son said the children of Gaza are being bombed relentlessly and that as a mother she cannot stand to see what’s happening.

A Palestinian woman who helped organize the rally said that Palestine, where Christ was born, is being bombed and people are being killed while people are preparing for Christmas.

She said the purpose of the protest was to remind British government officials that the killing in Gaza will not stop while they take their holiday break.