Israelis go on strike in bid to force truce deal

JERUSALEM — Strike action brought parts of Israel to a halt on Monday in a bid to raise pressure on the government to secure the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza, after the military recovered the bodies of six captives.

Relatives and demonstrators have accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government of not doing enough to bring the hostages back alive and during mass rallies on Sunday called for a truce deal to help free dozens who remain captive.

The military said on Sunday the bodies of six hostages, who were all captured alive during Hamas' Oct 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the conflict, had been recovered from a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip, prompting outpourings of grief and fury.

The Israeli Health Ministry said post-mortem examinations showed the six had been "murdered ... with several close-range gunshots" shortly before they were found by troops.

The Histadrut trade union called a nationwide strike beginning at 6 am "for the return" of the remaining 97 hostages.

Several major cities across Israel joined the strike, closing schools and municipal services for several hours. Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv was operating "as usual", a spokeswoman told AFP, but takeoffs were halted for two hours.

The strike followed a day of mass protests on Sunday that saw tens of thousands on the streets of Tel Aviv and elsewhere, part of a series of anti-government rallies during the war. On Monday, protesters again blocked roads in Tel Aviv.

Histadrut chief Arnon Bar-David said he wanted to "stop the abandonment of the hostages", adding that "only our intervention can shake those who need to be shaken", an apparent reference to top Israeli decision-makers who have opposed a truce or stalled after months of negotiations.

Following an intervention by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's Labor Court ruled the general strike must end at 2:30 pm, saying the strike had no economic basis and was largely political. Histadrut accepted the ruling.

Fighting continues

In the Gaza Strip, civil defense rescuers said an Israeli strike on Sunday killed 11 people at a school where Israel's military said a Hamas command center was based.

The fighting continued on Monday, coinciding with the second day of localized "humanitarian pauses" to facilitate a vaccination drive after the first confirmed polio case in 25 years.

Louise Wateridge, spokeswoman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said 87,000 children received a first dose of the polio vaccine on Sunday in central Gaza.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini called the inoculation campaign a race against time to reach more than 600,000 children in the war-torn territory of 2.4 million people.

"For this to work, parties to the conflict must respect the temporary area pauses," he said.

The Israeli military campaign against Hamas has so far killed at least 40,786 people in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.

The Oct 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Agencies Via Xinhua