TEL AVIV, Israel, On Monday, there was a rare call for a general strike in Israel to protest the fact that prisoners held in Gaza had not been returned. This caused many businesses to close and other problems all over the country, including the main international airport. But in some places, it was ignored, which shows how divided politics are.
Around 300,000 Israelis took to the streets late Sunday night to show their sadness and anger after six prisoners were found dead in Gaza. Most of the people who knew them blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that they could have been sent back alive as part of a deal with Hamas to end the war that had been going on for almost 11 months.
But some people agree with Netanyahu’s plan to keep putting military pressure on Hamas, whose attack on Israel on October 7 started the war. They say that in the end, it will force the militants to give in to Israeli requests, which could lead to more successful rescues and the end of the group.
The Histadrut, Israel’s biggest trade union, called for a general strike on Monday. It would be the first one since the war began. It wants to shut down or mess up important parts of the business, like the main airport, banks, and health care.
Between 8 and 10 a.m., airlines at Ben-Gurion, Israel’s largest international airport, stopped all outbound flights. Those flights either left early or were slightly late, but people were still waiting in queue at the check-in desks despite the small problems. The Israel Airports Authority said that arriving planes were still happening as usual at that time.
The strike shut down banks, some big stores and government offices. It was also hard to get around on public transport. Tel Aviv and other cities in Israel’s densely populated central area joined the strike, which meant that schools were closed and state daycares and kindergartens didn’t run.
But many cities and towns, including Jerusalem, were not taking part in the strike. Israeli news outlets said that the government asked a labour court to end the strike, saying that it was politically driven.
Sunday’s protests looked like they were the biggest since the war began. Up to 500,000 people are thought to have joined events across the country and the main rally in Tel Aviv. The Israeli media said between 200,000 and 400,000 people took part.
They want Netanyahu to make a deal to free the last 100 hostages held in Gaza; about 30 of them are thought to be dead. Netanyahu must do this even if it means leaving Hamas in bad shape and leaving the area. A lot of Israelis agree with this point of view, but some want to destroy the militant group more than they want the hostages to be free.
He has promised “total victory” over Hamas and says the group is to blame for the failure of the talks that have been going on for most of this year.
Israel claimed that Hamas killed all six hostages just before its troops got to the tunnel where the hostages were being held. Three of them, including an Israeli-American, were said to be set to be freed as part of a plan to end the fighting that was talked about in July. The Israeli Health Ministry said that the hostages were killed on Thursday or Friday by being shot close up.
Netanyahu said that Hamas was to blame, saying “whoever kills hostages doesn’t want a deal.”
Hamas said that Israel and the US were to blame for their deaths and said that they were making the talks take longer by making new demands, such as wanting Israel to keep control of two key corridors in Gaza. Hamas has offered to free the hostages in exchange for ending the war, pulling all Israeli troops out of the area, and freeing many Palestinian prisoners, including well-known terrorists.
One of the six hostages was 23-year-old Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was born in Berkeley, California. During the attack, a bomb hurt part of his left arm. Hamas put out a video in April that showed he was still living, which caused protests in Israel.
He was one of the most well-known hostages, and his parents had a very public effort to get the prisoners freed. They met with President Joe Biden and Pope Francis and spoke at the Democratic National Convention last month.
On Sunday, Biden said he was “torn apart and angry.” The White House said he talked to Goldberg-Polin’s parents and told them he was sorry for their loss.
On October 7, about 250 people were taken hostage. Israel now thinks that about 100 are still being held captive, with 35 of them likely dead. Through a cease-fire in November, more than 100 were set free in return for the freedom of Palestinians held by Israel. Eight have been saved by Israeli troops. In December, Israeli troops killed three Israelis who had fled captivity by accident.
During their attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, terrorists led by Hamas killed about 1,200 people, most of whom were civilians. Health officials in Gaza say that Israel’s operation in response to the attacks has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, but they don’t say how many of them were militants.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have had to move more than once because of the war, which has turned the confined area into a humanitarian disaster.
