The first organised strike, meant to be held nationwide, affected key transportation hubs and public services in parts of Israel on Monday.
ADVERTISEMENTIsrael's first major strike to protest the failure to return hostages held in Gaza affecting key infrastructure and public services in parts of the country on Monday.
Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion International Airport was reported to have closed for two hours on Monday morning, with some flights suspended on Monday morning.
In some areas, schools, government and municipal offices, and private businesses were due to close. According to local media, protesters in central Israel were causing major roadblocks and disrupting traffic.
Public transportation companies and the port of Haifa were also on strike, according to reports.
However, the call for a country-wide strike was ignored in other parts, reflecting deep political divisions.
What led to the strike on Monday?
Israel’s largest trade union, Histadrut, had called for a one-day strike starting at 6 am to pressure the government, in the first call to a nationwide shutdown since the 7 October Hamas attack that started the war in Gaza.
The general strike's announcement comes after tens of thousands of grieving and angry Israelis surged into the streets Sunday night following the recovery of six more hostages found dead in Gaza.
Thousands chanted “Now! Now!” as they demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reach a ceasefire with Hamas to bring the remaining captives home.
The mass outpouring appeared to be the largest such demonstration in 11 months of the war, and protesters said it felt like a possible turning point, although the country is deeply divided.
Thousands of people gathered outside Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem. In Tel Aviv, hostages’ relatives marched with coffins to symbolise the toll.
It aimed to shut down or disrupt major sectors of the economy, including banking, health care, and the country’s main airport.
Ceasefire negotiations have dragged on for months. Many blame Netanyahu for failing to reach a deal, which opinion polls show a majority of Israelis favour.
But the prime minister also has significant support for his strategy of “total victory” against Hamas, even if a deal for the hostages has to wait.
The military said all six had been killed shortly before the arrival of Israeli forces. Their recovery sparked calls for mass protests against Netanyahu, whom many families of hostages and the Israeli public blame for failing to strike a deal with Hamas to end the ongoing war and bring the hostages back alive.
Negotiations over such a deal have dragged on for months.
ADVERTISEMENTMilitants took captive five of the hostages at a music festival in southern Israel during Hamas' 7 October attack, which triggered the war. The sixth was abducted from the nearby farming community of Be'eri.
Netanyahu accused Hamas of scuttling ongoing ceasefire efforts. “Whoever murders hostages doesn’t want a deal,” he said in a statement posted on X. Critics in Israel have accused Netanyahu of dragging his feet in ceasefire talks, a charge he denies.
The Israeli army said the bodies were recovered from a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, around a kilometre from where another hostage was rescued alive last week.
“According to preliminary information, they were cruelly murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them," Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesperson, told reporters.
ADVERTISEMENTThe army identified the others as Ori Danino, 25, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Almog Sarusi, 27, Alexander Lobanov, 33, and Carmel Gat, 40.
Hamas has offered to release the hostages in return for an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including high-profile militants.
Izzat al-Rishq, a senior Hamas official, blamed the hostages' deaths on Israel and the United States, saying they would still be alive if Israel had accepted a ceasefire proposal that Hamas said it had agreed to back in July.
'Complete halt of the country'
Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Hamas is eradicated and says military pressure is needed to bring home the hostages.
ADVERTISEMENTA forum of hostage families called for a massive protest on Sunday, demanding a “complete halt of the country” to push for the implementation of a ceasefire and hostage release.
“A deal for the return of the hostages has been on the table for over two months. Were it not for the delays, sabotage, and excuses, those whose deaths we learned about this morning would likely still be alive,” it said in a statement.
Some 250 hostages were taken on 7 October. Before the military announced the latest discovery of bodies, Israel said it believed 108 hostages were still held in Gaza, and that about one-third of them were dead. In late August, the Israeli military recovered the bodies of six hostages in southern Gaza.
Eight hostages have been rescued by Israeli forces, the most recent found on Tuesday. More than 100 were freed during a weeklong ceasefire in November in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
ADVERTISEMENTTwo previous Israeli operations to free hostages killed scores of Palestinians. Hamas says several hostages have been killed in Israeli airstrikes and failed rescue attempts.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, when they stormed into southern Israel on 7 October, attacking army bases and several farming communities.
Israel's retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not say how many were fighters or civilians.
It has displaced the vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million people, often multiple times, and plunged the besieged territory into a humanitarian catastrophe.
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