Tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets to demand a ceasefire agreement and Israel's main trade union called for a strike after six more captives were found dead in Gaza.
Clashes broke out between protesters and security forces on Sunday night in one of the largest anti-government demonstrations in Israel since the Gaza war began nearly 11 months ago.
Protesters chanted “Now! Now!” and demanded that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reach a ceasefire with the Palestinian group Hamas to bring home the remaining captives.
Many Israelis blocked roads in Tel Aviv and demonstrated in front of Netanyahu's office in West Jerusalem.
In a statement, the Missing Hostages and Families Forum, which represents families of captives held in Gaza, said the deaths of the six hostages were a direct result of Netanyahu's failure to reach a deal to stop the fighting and bring their loved ones home.
“They were all killed in recent days, after surviving nearly 11 months of abuse, torture and starvation in Hamas captivity,” the forum said.
Gil Dickmann, cousin of Carmel Gat, whose body was among those returned, urged Israelis to put more pressure on their government. “Take to the streets and paralyze the country until everyone returns. They can still be saved,” Dickmann wrote on X.
Gideon Levy, a columnist for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, told Al Jazeera that Netanyahu has been defending right-wing parties in his government that are against any concessions to Hamas.
“They [the parties] “I don’t care one bit about the hostages,” he said.
Levy noted that within Netanyahu's Likud Party, the largest group in the government, Netanyahu wields a lot of power and the party supports him.
“Therefore, the challenges that can be presented from within the government are very limited,” he said. “The real challenge, the only possible one, would be from the streets, but it is too early to judge.”
Union calls for general strike
Meanwhile, for the first time since October 7, Israel's largest trade union federation, the Histadrut, has called for a general strike to pressure the government to sign a ceasefire agreement.
The union said Ben Gurion Airport, Israel's main air transport hub, would be closed from 8 a.m. (05:00 GMT) on Monday as it aimed to shut down or disrupt major sectors of Israel's economy, including banking and healthcare.
“A deal is more important than anything else,” said Histadrut chief Arnon Bar-David. “We are receiving body bags instead of a deal.”
He said he had the backing of Israel's leading manufacturers and businessmen in the high-tech sector. The alliance of some of the most powerful voices in Israeli business reflected the scale of public anger over the deaths of the six captives.
Municipal services in Tel Aviv, Israel's economic hub, will also be closed for part of Monday.
The Israel Manufacturers Association said it supported the strike and accused the government of failing in its “moral duty” to return the captives 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 the association's director, Ron Tomer.
Israeli opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yair Lapid said he supported the attack.
But Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has asked the country's attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, to file an urgent request to the courts to block the planned nationwide strike.
In his letter, Smotrich argued that a strike had no legal basis as it was intended to unduly influence important policy decisions by politicians on issues related to state security.
He also said a broad strike, which would shut down the country including outbound flights, has significant economic consequences that would cause unnecessary economic damage in times of war.
Truce negotiations between Israel and Hamas have dragged on for months, with many blaming Netanyahu for failing to reach a deal.
The Israeli military has killed at least 40,738 people and wounded 94,154 in its war on Gaza since Oct. 7. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, and some 250 people were captured by the group.
Israel's military has acknowledged the difficulty of rescuing the dozens of remaining captives and has said only a deal can bring about a large-scale return.
