Israeli demonstrations in Tel Aviv on Monday night. Source: lirishavit via X.
Massive protests have broken out in Israel on Sunday night after the bodies of six more hostages were found dead in Gaza.
The bodies of hostages Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino were recovered from a tunnel in Rafah, military spokesperson Daniel Hagari told reporters.
Tens of thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem, demanding the government reach a ceasefire deal with Hamas that would free Israeli captives.
Footage showed protesters blocking roads holding flags with photos of dead hostages, chanting “Now! Now!”
It also showed protesters being hit with water cannons by police.
Local media reported 29 arrests.
Around 250 hostages were taken at the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, according to Israeli tallies.
In a statement, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum blamed the death of the six hostages on Netanyahu’s failure to secure a ceasefire deal and stop the fighting.
“[The parties] could not care less about the hostages,” said a journalist at Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, referring to Netanyahu and right-wing parties that are against conceding to Hamas.
Following the protests, Israel’s largest union, Histadrut, called for a strike on Monday at Israel’s main air transport, Ben Gurion Airport. The airport was reported to have shut down at 8am local time (3pm AEST) for two hours.
Municipal services in Tel Aviv were also shut down for part of Monday.
The Histadrut represents about 800,000 workers across sectors such as healthcare, transportations, and banking.
“A deal is more important than anything else,” said Head of Histadrut Arnon Bar-David. “We are getting body bags instead of a deal.”
This strike is a first since October 7.
The Manufacturers Association of Israel said it supported the strike, and accused the government of failing to meet its “moral duty” to bring hostages back alive.
“Without the return of the hostages, we will not be able to end the war, we will not be able to rehabilitate ourselves as a society and we will not be able to begin to rehabilitate the Israeli economy,” said association head Ron Tomer.
The Tel Aviv labour court ordered an end to the strike, ruling that it was politically motivated.
Truce talks between Israel and Hamas have been dragging on for months.
“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,” Gil Dickmann, a relative of one of the dead hostages, told CNN on Monday.
Hamas’s armed wing said that hostages would return to their families in “coffins” if Netanyahu insists on freeing captives through military pressure, instead of reaching a truce deal.
Senior Hamas official Izzat al-Risheq said the six hostages were killed in Israeli air strikes.
Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed at least 40,738 people and wounded 94,154 since October 7. People in Gaza are enduring severe conditions with a hunger crisis, inadequate shelter, and a rapid spread of diseases.
