'Palestinian children, my age and younger, are being killed by the thousands': Dozens of high school pupils are demonstrating at Tel Aviv's Hostage Square for a hostage release deal as thousands of others across Israel promised to join the strike for a Gaza cease-fire
Thousands of students from around 70 high schools across Israel said they would strike on Monday, demanding a hostage deal and a cease-fire in Gaza.
Around 100 students across the country protested at Tel Aviv's Hostage Square before walking to the Israeli Education Ministry offices, blocking the entrance in protest. Others demonstrated at the Ayalon Highway.
Overnight, teenage activists locked the gates of 17 schools in central Israel's Ramat Gan, Givatayim and Tel Aviv, placing signs saying that students "won't learn to live with [the hostage crisis]. The keys are in [Education Minister] Kisch's hands."
Education Minister Yoav Kisch, who was previously an MK in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, has spoken out against a hostage deal. In July, he told Bet public radio that "the possibility of returning hostages through a mediated proposal is zero."
