Israel is experiencing a nationwide general strike following the discovery of six hostages shot in the head in a Gaza tunnel. The country’s major unions have announced a complete shutdown of the economy on Monday to pressure the government into agreeing to a ceasefire with Hamas.
The hostages, believed to have been executed by Hamas as Israeli troops advanced in Rafah, Gaza, included three who were slated for release under a potential ceasefire agreement. The killings have intensified scrutiny on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces accusations of obstructing recent peace efforts.
On Sunday, Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defence minister, called on Mr Netanyahu’s security cabinet to drop its veto of a peace deal.
Thousands of Israelis took to the streets in cities across the country, chanting: “Now! Now!” in reference to a possible ceasefire.
“A deal needs to be reached – a deal is more important than anything else,” Arnon Bar-David, the leader of the union that called a general strike, said on Sunday night.
Monday’s strike – the first since the Oct 7 attacks – was set to begin at 6am local time. Ben-Gurion Airport will halt all flights, starting at 8am.
Nurseries, universities and a number of large shopping centres will be closed. The Israel Bar Association alled on lawyers to join the one-day strike.
On Sunday night, demonstrators blocked the main way in to Jerusalem, while hundreds protested outside the prime minister’s office in the city.
In Tel Aviv, thousands took to the streets following a call by the Hostages Families Forum earlier in the day to make the country come to a “complete halt”. The forum said the killing of the six hostages in Gaza was a “direct result” of the government delaying the ceasefire.
Thousands protested outside the defence ministry’s headquarters in Tel Aviv, with demonstrators carrying mock coffins and signs saying: “End the criminal abandonment.”
Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, joined calls for both sides to agree an end to fighting in Gaza, piling further pressure on Mr Netanyahu.
“Hamas must release all the hostages now, and a ceasefire deal must be agreed by all sides immediately to end the suffering,” he said.
Joe Biden, the US president, said: “It is as tragic as it is reprehensible. Make no mistake, Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes. And we will keep working around the clock for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages.”
He later spoke to the family of one of the killed hostages, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American-Israeli.
Mr Netanyahu is accused of torpedoing a US-led peace initiative that would have led to the release of some hostages.
He refused to accept Hamas demands that Israel gives up control of the Philadelphi Corridor, which runs along the border between Gaza and Egypt.
Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defence minister, called on the security cabinet to reverse a decision to veto the deal made on Thursday.
He said: “It’s too late for the abductees who were murdered in cold blood. The abductees who remain in the captivity of Hamas must be returned home.”
Yair Lapid, the opposition leader, accused Mr Netanyahu of doing “everything to stay in power” insead of saving the lives of hostages.
On Sunday night, hundreds of people attended the funeral of Almog Sarusi, 27, who was among the hostages killed.
Mr Sarusi’s mother, Nira, said her son was “abandoned, an ongoing abandonment that went on with every day, every hour, for 331 days. You were sacrificed at the altar of destroying Hamas” – a reference to Mr Netanyahu’s primary goal of the war.
She added: “Enough. No more. Only a hostage deal. Only return the remaining hostages – those to be rehabilitated and those to be buried.”
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