Tens of thousands take to streets as anger rises at Netanyahu government after deaths of six hostages
Tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets on Sunday night and a general strike was called for the country amid an eruption of public outrage over the government’s handling of the war in Gaza after the deaths of six hostages being held deep underground by Hamas.
The discovery of the hostages’ bodies in Gaza over the weekend threatened to bring tensions over the war to a boiling point. An estimated 100,000 protested in Tel Aviv while others demonstrated in Jerusalem as pressure on the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to reach a ceasefire deal to bring the remaining hostages home reached a new peak.
The first general strike since March last year is expected to bring large parts of Israel’s economy to a halt on Monday. Government and municipal offices were due to close, as well as schools and many private businesses. Israel’s international airport, Ben Gurion, is due to shut down at 8am local time (0600 BST) for an unknown period.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the bodies of Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino were found in tunnels “dozens of metres” underground during fighting in Rafah in southern Gaza. The six were seized during Hamas’s 7 October attacks on Israel.
Israel’s health ministry said a forensic examination of the bodies showed the hostages had been “murdered by Hamas terrorists in a number of shots at close range” 48 to 72 hours before they were found.
However, the findings pointing to Hamas executions did little to deflect widespread fury towards Netanyahu and his rightwing coalition for failing to agree a US-backed hostages-for-peace deal with Hamas, which 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 deal.
“Whoever murders abductees does not want a deal,” Netanyahu said. “We, for our part, did not let up. The Israeli government is committed, and I am personally committed, to continue striving for a deal that will return all our abductees and guarantee our security and existence.”
Netanyahu’s claims were undermined by anonymous briefings to the press by security officials on Sunday, blaming his insistence on retaining strategic territory inside Gaza, particularly a strip along the Egyptian border called the Philadelphi corridor, for the failure to reach a breakthrough in the hostage negotiations.
