Tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets on Sunday night and a country-wide general strike was called amid public anger over the government's handling of the war in Gaza following the deaths of six hostages held deep underground by Hamas.
The discovery of a hostage's body in Gaza over the weekend threatened to bring tensions over the war to a new high, with an estimated 100,000 people protesting in Tel Aviv and demonstrations also taking place in Jerusalem, and pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire deal to allow the remaining hostages to return home reaching a new peak.
The first general strike since March last year is expected to bring much of Israel's economy to a halt on Monday. Government and city offices will be closed, as well as schools and many private businesses. Israel's international airport, Ben Gurion, is due to close from 8am local time (6am BST) for an unknown period of time.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that the bodies of Carmel Gatto, Hersh Goldberg-Porin, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarsi and Ori Danino were discovered in a tunnel several dozen meters underground during fighting in the Rafah area in southern Gaza. The six were seized during a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.
Israel's Health Ministry said a forensic examination of the body revealed that the hostage was “killed by Hamas terrorists with several gunshots at close range” 48 to 72 hours before he was found.
But the findings pointing to Hamas executions did little to ease widespread anger over the failure of Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition to agree a hostage-swap peace deal with Hamas, a deal that has been on the negotiating table since late May.
In a statement mourning the six hostages, the prime minister blamed Hamas for refusing to accept the agreement.
“Whoever kills the abductees does not want an agreement,” Netanyahu said. “For our part, we have not given up. The government of Israel, and I personally, am committed to continuing to work toward an agreement that returns all the abductees and guarantees our safety and survival.”
Netanyahu's claims were undermined by an anonymous security official who briefed reporters on Sunday, blaming the lack of a breakthrough in hostage negotiations on his insistence on holding onto strategic territory in the Gaza Strip, particularly a stretch along the Egyptian border known as the Philadelphia Corridor.
Defense Minister Yoav Galant was the only government member to vote against Netanyahu's stance on the corridor last week, and on Sunday he called on the cabinet to reverse course.
“It is too late for the hostages who were murdered in cold blood,” Gallant said, adding that “those still being held by Hamas must be released.”
Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq blamed Israel and the United States for the hostages' deaths, noting that Israel had not agreed to the ceasefire agreement that Hamas accepted. Rishq made no claims about the cause of the hostages' deaths, nor did he comment on the IDF's suggestion that they had been executed.
An anonymous Hamas official told AFP that the hostages were ” [Israeli] He claimed that the deaths were caused by “artillery fire and bombing by the occupation forces”, a claim denied by the IDF and contradicted by an investigation by the Israeli Ministry of Health.
“We can no longer stand by and watch while children are killed in the Gaza tunnels,” said Arnon Bar David, leader of the Histadrut trade union federation, which announced the general strike.
“We are no longer one country. This situation must stop. The State of Israel must return to normalcy. We are getting body bags in exchange for deals. We have come to the conclusion that only our intervention can move those who need to be moved.”
Israeli schools are due to send students home late on Monday morning, and numerous restaurants and other private businesses in Tel Aviv announced they would close in solidarity with the public sector and the hostages.
The Forum of Families of Hostages and Missing People, a group of relatives of abduction victims who have led the protests and called for a ceasefire, welcomed the call for the strike.
“Starting tomorrow the country will be shaken. We call on the people to prepare to bring the country to a halt,” the forum said. “These six people were captured alive, endured the horrors of captivity and then murdered in cold blood. An agreement on the return of the hostages has been under discussion for more than two months. Without delays, obstructions and excuses, the dead we learned about this morning would probably still be alive.”
The Histadrut last called a general strike in March last year after Netanyahu fired Gallant for opposing plans to limit the power and independence of the Supreme Court. The strike paralyzed much of the economy but ended hours after Netanyahu announced he was putting judicial reforms on hold, then reversed his decision to fire Gallant about two weeks later.
Tens of thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv for a protest on Sunday night, while thousands more joined hostage families in Jerusalem to protest outside Prime Minister Netanyahu's office during a cabinet meeting. Demonstrators then marched to the Cordos Light Rail Bridge and tried to block one of the main entrances to the city, but were forcibly dispersed by police.
“I'm fed up. I want my son to come home. Enough is enough. Enough is enough of this policy,” said Sigi Cohen, whose 26-year-old son Elijah remains a hostage in Gaza.
“Elijah, if you hear me, take care of yourself and get strong. You won't be out there much longer.”
Funerals for the hostages began on Sunday, further fuelling public anger.
“You were left alone for hours on end every day for 331 days,” Nira Sarsi said at her son Almog's funeral, draped in an Israeli flag. “You and so many other beautiful, pure souls. Enough. No more.”
Hamas killed 1,200 people in a surprise attack on Israel in October, and in the ensuing war in Gaza, 40,691 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry's latest estimate.
Of the 250 Israeli hostages taken on October 7, eight were rescued and more than 100 were released following a provisional ceasefire in November. The discovery of the six bodies brings the number of hostages still missing in the Gaza Strip to 101. The IDF has confirmed that 35 have died during the more than 10 months of captivity.
Dalia Kusnir's brothers-in-law, Eitan Horn and Yair Horn, were kidnapped that day and remain in Gaza.
“The talks are over,” Kusnir said. “Our hostage families cannot wait any longer and the government is clearly not doing anything to facilitate an agreement.”
While Kusnir welcomed the general strike, he called for millions of Israelis to take to the streets in support of a ceasefire and for government officials who disagree with Netanyahu's policies to stand up to him and threaten the survival of the coalition government.
She rejected the government's argument that maintaining the Philadelphia Corridor is a strategic necessity for Israel.
“All the security chiefs say that if the worst comes to the worst, the military knows how to retake it,” Kusnir said. “They say it's strategic, but Judaism teaches that there is only one thing that is strategic, and that is life. The only thing we cannot lose is ourselves, our values, our essence.”
