People protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and call for the release of hostages held by the Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024.
Ohad Zwigenberg/AP
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Ohad Zwigenberg/AP
JERUSALEM — Israel’s largest union called for a general strike on Monday to pressure the government to cease fire in Gaza after Israel said it had found the bodies of six hostages, including a young American-Israeli man held by Hamas.
The Histadrut represents about 800,000 workers in sectors such as health care, transportation and banking, and said the strike would include the international airport, with all flights halted. The strike is aimed at convincing the Israeli government to reach a deal to bring the remaining hostages home.
It would be the first general strike since the Hamas offensive on October 7. A general strike last year over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial judicial reform contributed to a temporary delay in the plan.
A new wave of protests began Sunday night in Israel, fueled by anger and grief. Many Israelis blame Netanyahu for failing to bring them back in a deal with Hamas to end the 10-month war. Negotiations on such a deal have dragged on for months.
The military said all six hostages were killed shortly before Israeli forces arrived.
Netanyahu said Israel would hold Hamas accountable for the “brutal” killing of the hostages and blamed the militant group for the stalled talks, saying “anyone who kills hostages does not want a deal”.
Terrorists took Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, and four other hostages at a music festival in southern Israel in a Hamas attack on October 7 that sparked the war.
The Berkeley, California native lost part of his left arm to a grenade during the attack. In April, a video released by Hamas showing him alive but missing his left hand sparked new protests in Israel calling on the government to do more to secure the release of the hostages.
The military identified the other hostages killed as Ori Danino, 25; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Almog Sarusi, 27; and Alexander Lobanov, 33; who were also kidnapped from the music festival. The sixth person, Carmel Gat, 40, was kidnapped from the nearby farming community of Be’eri.
The bodies were found in a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, about a kilometer (half a mile) from where another hostage, Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, was rescued alive last week, reports said.
Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani, an army spokesman, said the army believed there were hostages in the area but had no specific intelligence. He said Israeli forces found bodies several dozen metres below ground while “the fighting was ongoing”, but there was no gunfight in the tunnel.
He said there was no doubt that Hamas had killed them.
Hamas has offered to release the hostages in exchange for an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including senior militants.
Izzat al-Rishq, a senior Hamas official, said the hostages could still survive if Israel accepted a US-backed ceasefire proposal that Hamas said it agreed to in July.
Families of hostages call for ‘complete shutdown of country’
Netanyahu has vowed to continue the fight until Hamas is destroyed and said military pressure is needed to bring the hostages home.
Israel’s Channel 12 reported that he had an argument at a security cabinet meeting late Thursday with his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, who accused him of prioritizing control of a strategic corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border — a major sticking point in the negotiations — over the lives of the hostages. The cabinet reportedly voted to keep the corridor despite objections from Gallant, who said it would prevent a hostage deal.
An Israeli official confirmed the report and said three hostages — Goldberg-Polin, Yerushalmi and Gat — were scheduled to be released in the first phase of a ceasefire proposal discussed in July. The official was not authorized to brief the media on the talks and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“On behalf of the State of Israel, I offer my deepest condolences to their families and ask for forgiveness,” Gallant said on Sunday after the remains were found. He later called on the Cabinet to reverse its decision.
A forum of hostage families has called for a “total halt to the country’s activities” to push for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages.
“A hostage release deal has been in the works for over two months. Without the delays, sabotage and excuses, those whose deaths we learned of this morning would still be alive,” the statement said.
US President Joe Biden, who met Goldberg-Polin’s parents, said he was “deeply saddened and outraged”.
“It is tragic and reprehensible,” he said. “Make no mistake, Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes. And we will continue to work around the clock to reach an agreement that secures the release of the remaining hostages.”
Vice President Kamala Harris said she prayed for the Goldberg-Polin family and condemned Hamas.
A standout campaign
Goldberg-Polin’s parents, U.S.-born immigrants to Israel, have become perhaps the most prominent relatives of the hostages on the international stage. They have met with Biden, Pope Francis and others and spoken at the United Nations, calling for the release of all the hostages.
On August 21, his parents spoke to a hushed audience at the Democratic National Convention — to standing ovations and chants of “bring him home.”
“This is a political conference. But getting our only son — and all the beloved hostages — home is not a political issue. It’s a humanitarian issue,” said the boy’s father, Jon Polin. The boy’s mother, Rachel, who bowed her head amid cheers and touched her chest, said, “Hersh, if you can hear us, we love you, be strong, survive.”
She and her husband tried to keep their son and others from being reduced in number, describing Hersh as a lover of music and soccer, who enjoyed traveling and planned to attend college after his military service ended.
Some 250 hostages were taken on 7 October. Israel now believes 101 remain in captivity, including 35 who are believed to have died. More than 100 were released in a week-long ceasefire in November in exchange for the release of Palestinians held by Israel. Eight were rescued by Israeli forces.
Two previous Israeli hostage rescue operations have killed dozens of Palestinians. Hamas said some hostages were killed in Israeli airstrikes and failed rescue attempts. Israeli forces accidentally killed three Israelis who escaped from captivity in December.
Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, when they attacked southern Israel on October 7, attacking army bases and several farming communities.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, but it is not clear how many were militants. The offensive has displaced most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, often multiple times, and plunged the besieged territory into a humanitarian disaster.
