Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Jerusalem on Sunday to denounce the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the exemptions granted to religiously extremist Jews from military service, in a scene reminiscent of the massive street protests last year.

Protest groups organized the demonstration in front of the Knesset, calling for new elections to replace the current government. Some of these groups led the massive demonstrations that shook Israel last year.

The protesters also want greater equality in bearing the burden of mandatory military service for most Israelis. About 600 soldiers have been killed since the October 7 attack and the Gaza war that followed, the highest death toll among the army in decades.

Channel 12 News said it appeared to be the largest demonstration since the start of the war. The newspaper "Haaretz" and the "Ynet" news website reported that tens of thousands of people participated in it.

Netanyahu's government faces widespread criticism over its security failures regarding the Hamas attack on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 people were kidnapped to Gaza.

Nurit Robinson (74 years old) said at the demonstration, “This government has failed completely and miserably. It will lead us to the abyss.”

The Israeli war in the Palestinian Strip has exacerbated a long-standing source of tension in society that is also destabilizing Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, which is the exemptions granted to ultra-Orthodox religious seminary students from serving in the army.

With the March 31 deadline for the government to come up with legislation to resolve the decades-long crisis over this issue, Netanyahu submitted a last-minute request to the Supreme Court last week to postpone the case for 30 days.

In an apparent compromise, the Supreme Court gave government officials until April 30 to submit additional defenses. But it also ordered, in a temporary ruling, the suspension of government funding for religious institute students who would have had to commit to conscription starting tomorrow, Monday.

The demonstrators waved Israeli flags and chanted, “Elections are now.”

At a press conference in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said he was confident of reaching a solution. He added that holding elections at the height of a war that Israel is very close to winning would paralyze the country for several months.

In Tel Aviv, some families of prisoners and their supporters closed a main highway, in protest against what they described as Netanyahu’s failure to return their families.