JERUSALEM, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Israeli citizens took to streets on Saturday night to protest the ongoing U.S.-Israeli-Iran conflict, expressing exhaustion and demanding peace amid recent escalations.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in Tel Aviv's Habima Square, holding photos of children and memorial candles, and mourning young lives lost in recent violence.
Among them was Yael, who said many children in the region have lost their lives since Feb. 28 when the war began.
"In Iran, in Palestine, in Israel, in Lebanon, over the past month, these children died from war and violence," Yael told Xinhua. "We say clearly: children are the victims of war. We demand that the war stop, that the killing stop."
Protesters held signs reading "They Were. Now They Are Gone," and chanted slogans demanding peace and an immediate halt to military operations.
For many of them, the exhaustion of living under wartime conditions has become unbearable.
"The Israeli government's policy is clear: They bomb Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran; They occupy and attack the West Bank; They spill blood and set the whole region on fire, dragging their own people into an endless war," one protester said.
"Exhaustion" was the word many Israelis mentioned to Xinhua. Galit Mass-Ader, a member of the civil society group Standing Together, noted that normal daily life has disappeared, with many families constantly moving between their homes and bomb shelters, and some even sleeping in shelters.
"It's not the way they want to keep on living," she said.
Mass-Ader argued that the government should not keep choosing war when it already knows the cost.
"I've seen it happening in Gaza, and I don't want it for Lebanon. I don't want it for anybody in the world," she said.
Shortly after the rally began, Israeli police charged into the crowd and began dispersing the protesters. Some demonstrators were seen pushed to the ground, others dragged away and detained. Police said the gathering violated "emergency-situation guidelines and regulations prohibiting assemblies due to the security situation."
"If the government really cared about security, it would stop the war, not stop a peaceful protest," one protester told Xinhua at the scene.
As police dispersed the crowd, reports emerged that the Israeli military launched new strikes against targets in Iran and Lebanon.
"An alternative for this endless war is simply peace and to make agreements," said Mass-Ader. "Every war at the end of it there are agreements, why not this time?" ■
