[Sephiroth]

That hardly explained what the people were demanding. My reading of the situation fairly early on was that the people generally wanted Hamas to be smashed. The families of hostages were shit scared that Israel's military response would get the hostages killed. That's rock/hard place stuff.

And yes, it suited Netanyahu's political purpose, likely driven by the Smotrich faction - but that is a side issue if it's the hostages we're talking about.

After all, how many hostages died between March 2025 and today?