A general strike threatened to bring Israel to a halt on Monday, after the killing of six captives in Gaza sparked an outburst of public fury at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s failure to secure a ceasefire-for-hostages deal.
The country’s largest labor union, known as Histadrut, threatened to shut down the “entire” economy, with its chairman Arnon Bar-David warning on Sunday that Israel was “in a downward spiral, and we don’t stop receiving body bags.”
Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport halted departures and arrivals of flights for just over two hours starting at 8 a.m. local time (1 a.m. ET), though flights later resumed.
The general strike is the largest in Israel since March 2023, when a similar mass walkout over Netanyahu’s controversial attempts to overhaul the country’s judiciary brought much of the economy to a standstill.
The nationwide strikes – which ended on Monday at 2:30 p.m. local time (7:30 a.m. ET) following a Tel Aviv court order – reflect growing anger toward Netanyahu. The prime minister has been accused by critics of stalling efforts for a deal by some hostage families and their supporters.
Tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets in multiple cities on Sunday in one of the biggest nationwide protests since the outbreak of Israel’s war on Hamas. In Tel Aviv, Israeli police arrested seven demonstrators on Monday for “violating public order and disrupting traffic.”
More than 100 hostages, including 35 believed to be dead, are still being held in Gaza. The vast majority of those hostages were taken during Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, when some 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 taken captive.
Three of the six hostages found dead, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, had been expected to be released in an eventual ceasefire, Israeli officials told CNN. Autopsies showed they were shot at short range on Thursday or Friday morning. Israeli forces announced the recovery of their bodies from an underground tunnel in Rafah on Saturday.
The discovery of the six hostage bodies has thrown negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage deal into question.
Jerusalem, protesters called for Netanyahu to resign, while during a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant lambasted the Israeli government for what he said was prioritizing control of a key border area known as the Philadelphi corridor over a deal to free hostages, calling it a “moral disgrace.”
Meanwhile, an Israeli diplomat told CNN they were “furious” after the six hostages were killed in Gaza. “My government had a responsibility to do whatever it takes to save them and it failed them and their families. We owe them an apology.”
The relative of one of the hostages who was shot dead in southern Gaza also blamed Netanyahu for their deaths. Gil Dickmann, the cousin of Carmel Gat, told CNN that the Israeli government “cold-bloodedly” crossed a “red line” by prioritizing the corridor over the lives of the hostages.
“We know that Hamas has agreed to a deal at some point, and Israel was the one putting on more and more terms and actually postponing the deal,” Dickmann said on Monday. “Right now, we know the decisions that our Prime Minister Netanyahu has made it impossible for Carmel and other hostages to return and put their lives in great danger, and that’s what killed them.”
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