Despondent and livid Israelis, exuding deep anger and fury, have taken to the streets. Once it became known on Saturday that Hamas had executed six hostages, Israelis staged the largest demonstration against the government since the war in Gaza began. Those hostages could have been saved had Benjamin Netanyahu assented to a hostage deal. But he didn’t. In fact, he actively undermined the possibility for months, evading and reneging constantly.

The 350,000 who protested in Tel Aviv were the equivalent of about 2.4 million Britons or 12 million Americans gathering in the same place for the same cause. Immediately, the question of whether this was a political inflection point for Netanyahu was raised.

The answer is possibly – but that depends on how sustainable these demonstrations are. Do they reflect a critical mass of disgust that would translate into political turmoil? Will the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, the Israel Defense Forces top brass and the intelligence community’s frustrations with Netanyahu fuel more demonstrations? We can’t know for sure yet, but if so, Netanyahu will face a major political predicament, one that he has somehow managed to avoid for months.

However angry Israelis felt, the murder of the hostages........

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