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Israel’s main union orders nationwide general strike after soldiers find bodies of victims Six hostages killed from the Gaza Strip, where the army is fighting Palestinian militants.
That night, tens of thousands of Israelis gathered on the streets of Tel Aviv and other cities to protest the government and demand a deal to release the hostages.
The military said the bodies of the six hostages were recovered from “an underground tunnel in the Rafah area” in southern Gaza on Saturday.
They were among 251 hostages taken by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that sparked the ongoing war, of which 97 remain in Gaza and the military says 33 have died.
Many were released last November following a negotiated week-long ceasefire, but relatives say not enough has been done to free those still being held.
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum activist group said there was an urgent need to negotiate a “hostage repatriation agreement”.
A statement said the six hostages “would likely still be alive if not for months of delays, sabotage and excuses in mediation efforts.”
The families called for a nationwide general strike to force the government to reach a deal.
Shortly thereafter, the head of Israel’s powerful labor union Histadrut ordered a “general strike” on Monday in support of the hostages.
‘All-out attack’
“I have come to the conclusion that only our intervention can shake those who need to be shaken,” union president Arnon Bar-David said in a statement.
“Starting at six o’clock tomorrow morning, there will be a total strike across the entire Israeli economy.”
“It is unacceptable that the agreement has not progressed due to political considerations.”
During the protests in Tel Aviv, many demonstrators blocked a main highway and confronted police, “forcing” them to declare the protests illegal, police said in a statement.
Police then “undertook crowd control measures to disperse the rioters,” the statement said.
The six hostages are Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Ori Danino, American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin and Russian-Israeli Alexander Lubanov.
Military spokesman Daniel Hajari said all six were “captured alive on the morning of October 7” and “brutally killed by Hamas terrorists shortly before our arrival.”
Izzat al-Rishq, a Hamas official in Qatar, said they were “killed by Zionist (Israeli) bombings,” but the military denied the allegation.
Israeli Health Ministry spokeswoman Shila Solomon said the hostage was “killed by Hamas terrorists with several close-range gunshots” 48 to 72 hours before the autopsy.
A senior Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that “some” of the six hostages had been “allowed” to be released in a hostage swap deal under a yet-to-be-concluded agreement.
Israel’s critics accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prolonging the war for political gain.
“I want to tell you how sorry I am and I ask for your forgiveness for not being able to bring Sasha back alive,” Netanyahu told Lubanov’s parents on Sunday.
In addition, he accused Hamas leaders of “killing hostages and being unwilling to reach an agreement” and vowed to “settle accounts” with them.
West Bank Attack
U.S. President Joe Biden said they were “shocked and outraged” by the deaths but told reporters he was “still optimistic” a deal could be reached.
The Biden administration has been involved in ceasefire mediation efforts along with Qatar and Egypt.
Israeli police said three policemen were killed in what they said was a “gun attack” as soldiers carried out a fifth day of raids against Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank.
The incident took place near the Tacumiya checkpoint in the Hebron area in the southern West Bank.
The military said it had “eliminated” the suspected attackers after surrounding a house.
At least 24 Palestinians have been killed since Wednesday’s attack, including 14 people the militant group said were its members.
A 20-year-old soldier was killed on Saturday in what the Israeli military called a “counter-terrorist” operation.
In the northern West Bank, AFP photographers saw Israeli bulldozers in the center of Jenin, a day after an official said Israeli soldiers had destroyed most of the streets and cut off electricity and water to adjacent refugee camps.
Late on Sunday, an AFP photographer heard loud explosions near the camp and saw black smoke rising over Jenin.
The United Nations said on Wednesday that at least 637 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza region by Israeli forces or settlers since the start of the war there.
During the same period, 23 Israelis, including soldiers, were killed in Palestinian attacks or military operations, according to official data.
Polio vaccination
The nearly 11-month-long war between Israel and Hamas in the besieged Gaza Strip is about to enter a “humanitarian pause” to allow for a mass polio vaccination campaign, which officially began on Sunday, a health official said.
The Hamas attack on October 7 killed 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
The Israeli offensive has killed at least 40,738 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry. The United Nations Human Rights Office says the dead are mostly women and children.
The war brought tremendous destruction to Gaza, forced 2.4 million Gazans to flee their homes and triggered a humanitarian crisis.
Water, sanitation and health facilities have been destroyed, leading to the spread of preventable diseases.
The World Health Organization said Israel agreed to a three-day “humanitarian pause” to facilitate a campaign to vaccinate some 640,000 children after the first confirmed case in Gaza in 25 years.
Yasser Shaaban, director of Al Oda Hospital, said the service was officially launched on Sunday at three medical centers in central Gaza.
“We hope that this children’s vaccination campaign will be conducted peacefully,” Shaaban said, noting that there were “many drones” flying overhead.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said late Sunday that a total of 72,611 children were vaccinated on the first day of the campaign.
Gaza health officials said at least 11 people were killed in an airstrike on Sunday that targeted police at a school housing displaced people.
The Israeli military said it had attacked a Hamas command center.
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