As of 06:00 (05:00 in Spain) on Monday, the Israeli economy will shut down. This is the promise made by Israel’s largest union, Histadrut, which has called for a day of general strike to protest the deaths of six other hostages, whose bodies were rescued Sunday by Israeli soldiers in Gaza. Nearly a hundred people have been kidnapped in the Gaza Strip since October 7, and Israeli unions, along with other social actors, have mobilized to support their families and demand that the government reach an agreement with Palestinian militias so that they can return home. .home, before it is too late.
“We are receiving body bags instead of an agreement.” “I have come to the conclusion that only our intervention can mobilize those who need to be mobilized,” Histadrut Chairman Arnon Bar-David said in a statement. After a meeting with relatives of the kidnapped, Bar-David denounced that the Israeli government did not sign an agreement “for political reasons,” while more and more voices are directly accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of boycotting negotiations with the Palestinian movement Hamas.
On Sunday, the Israeli military reported that the six bodies found inside a tunnel in southern Gaza were those of six hostages (four men and two women), who were “brutally murdered by Hamas” before troops could rescue them, according to the official’s version. Some of them, such as the two women and a man with dual Israeli-American citizenship, could have been released in the first phase of the ceasefire agreement on the table since late May, but Israel and Hamas refuse to accept it.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid attacked the government yesterday after hearing the news of the six hostages’ deaths: “Instead of making deals, they play politics; instead of saving lives, they bury the kidnapped,” he said on his X account. “Instead of doing everything possible to bring them home, Netanyahu is doing everything possible to stay in power,” he added. Lapid called on the unions to go on strike and praised the Histadrut for doing so.
“The families of the hostages urge the population to act and join them in their struggle to end the abandonment and bring their loved ones home,” reads the appeal launched yesterday by the Forum of Families of Hostages and Kidnapped Persons, quoted by the EFE agency.
Demonstrations and services stopped
Since Monday morning, hundreds of people have been demonstrating in different regions of Israel, following a massive demonstration last night in Tel Aviv, during which more than 30 participants were arrested – 25 of them are still being held, according to the newspaper. Haaretz–.
Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport suspended flight departures for more than two hours on Monday. Other services are halted, including some banks that have joined the strike, and hospitals have adopted reduced hours. Universities are expected to remain closed, while schools will remain open, except in municipalities that have joined the strike, where centers will have reduced hours, the newspaper said. The Jerusalem PostThe national electricity company will also offer minimal services, as if it were a weekend. Many private technology companies have joined the strike, while some companies will only open in the afternoon.
The state attorney general’s office has asked the Israeli labor court to rule against the Histadrut strike, ensuring that “this is not a strike due to a collective labor dispute and is therefore a political strike.” The move comes after far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich contacted the attorney general on Sunday to request precautionary measures against the strike. “This is a political strike that does not fall under the authority of the Histadrut and has no legal effect,” Smotrich wrote on the social network X.
