As the bombardment of the besieged enclave continues, Israeli forces in the southern Gaza Strip have dropped leaflets urging residents to provide information about the prisoners captured by Hamas on October 7.

The leaflets dropped on Saturdayshowed the photos of dozens of prisoners still in Gaza, along with a message suggesting that there would be benefits for anyone who provides information to Israel.

“You want to return home? Please report if you have identified any of them,” said the message, which also listed a phone number and a link to a website that contains pictures and names of the prisoners in Arabic.

“They are asking people for help because they are unable to get to their hostages because of the resistance,” said Abu Ali, a resident of the northern Gaza Strip. “Stop the war, Netanyahu, and take back your people,” he told Reuters.

The Israeli army has dropped leaflets saying it has made the forced relocation of Palestinian citizens (war crimes) conditional on the return of hostages. Although their abduction had nothing to do with them, Palestinian citizens are being punished collectively (war crimes). https://t.co/PC9eqWToFV

— Naks Bilal (@NaksBilal) January 20, 2024

The prisoners were taken during Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on October 7, which killed more than 1,100 people. Since then, Israel has bombed Gaza relentlessly, killing more than 24,900 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

More than 100 of the prisoners were released during a short-lived November ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Israel says 132 remain in Gaza and 27 have died in captivity.

“Prisoners are important”

On Saturday, dozens of prisoners’ relatives gathered outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in the Israeli capital, demanding he reach an agreement with Hamas to secure their release.

Protesters plan to spend the night in tents outside Netanyahu’s home in the coastal city of Caesarea – about 60 km (37 miles) north of Tel Aviv – to protest his lack of progress.

“The protesters said they wanted Netanyahu to come out and talk to them,” said Al Jazeera’s Laura Khan, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem.

“A person whose brother is in captivity and whose mother has been released in prison last dealNetanyahu said, looking her in the eyes and saying the prisoners were important. She thinks he is lying. She said there was blood on his hands,” she added.

People standing outside Netanyahu’s house held placards that read “We want a deal now,” Khan noted.

Israeli War Minister and former military chief Gadi Eizenkot said this on Friday A deal will be necessary to ensure that prisoners continue to be held in the city Gaza Strip are released alive, and it is extremely unlikely that a blitz attack will be successful.

However, Netanyahu has said he will push for a “complete victory” against Hamas, but has not outlined how he would achieve it.

Meanwhile, an anti-war protest took place in Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, on Saturday, bringing together Israeli Jews and Palestinian citizens of Israel to demand an end to the fighting in Gaza.

“The message here is to end the war and that [the Israelis] “We can only live peacefully side by side with a political solution for the Palestinians,” Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker said, reporting on the protest, which Israeli officials allowed to take place for just two hours.

No end in sight

There were attacks in Gaza no signs of stopping The Health Ministry said 165 people were killed and 280 others injured in Israeli attacks in the last 24 hours.

“The heavy bombing across the Gaza Strip has not let up and it looks like everything has started again in the north, where more residential buildings were attacked,” Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said in a report from Rafah.

“There appears to be an increase in the intensity and scale of bombings, with the remaining buildings near al-Shifa Hospital and in the western part of Gaza City as well as Jabalia and Beit Lahiya being hit.”

The area surrounding Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis was also heavily bombed, Mahmoud noted. The facility is one of the few partially functioning hospitals in Gaza.

In more than 100 days of war, Israel’s air, land and sea offensive has devastated much of the Gaza Strip and displaced most of its 2.3 million residents. Many have been forced to move repeatedly and seek refuge in tents that do little to protect them from the elements and disease, according to the United Nations.