After the bodies of six hostages were recovered from the Palestinian Gaza Strip on Saturday, new protests began across Israel. A nationwide strike was called.
The Gaza war started about 11 months ago. Since the start of this war, there have never been such large and widespread protests in Israel.
Last Saturday, Israeli soldiers recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in the Rafah area of southern Gaza. One of them was a dual citizen of the United States. They are Carmel Gatt, Aden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Paulin, Alexander Lovanov, Ori Danino and Almag Sarusi.
After the recovery of the bodies of the six hostages, there was a widespread reaction among ordinary Israelis. Protests spread across Israel.
Hundreds of thousands of people protested against the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government last Sunday. They demanded an immediate agreement for the release of the hostages.
Israel's main trade union, the Histradrot, went on strike across the country on Monday. Several important cities in Israel, including Tel Aviv, came to a virtual standstill during the strike.
Gaza-based Palestinian independence organization Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 last year. At that time 251 hostages were taken to Gaza.
A number of hostages were released during a week-long ceasefire in November last year. Apart from this, the Israeli soldiers rescued several hostages alive and dead at different times.
The Israeli army says Hamas still holds 97 hostages in Gaza. And a total of 33 hostages died.
Israeli protesters charge that Netanyahu has repeatedly failed to reach an agreement to safely return hostages from Gaza. His government is not taking any effective steps to free those who are still held hostage.
The protesters demanded that the Netanyahu government change its current position to save the lives of the remaining hostages in Gaza and return them safely to Israel. Let the government make a deal quickly.
According to the Israeli army, six hostages were killed by Hamas before they could get close to rescue them.
Netanyahu has vowed a 'stern' response to the hostage deaths.
However, on the contrary to these words, the anger of ordinary Israelis against the Netanyahu government has increased.
Last Sunday, intense anger was expressed through unprecedented protests in Israel. Many roads were blocked during the protests, which were attended by millions of people.
Israel's largest trade union, Histradrot, called a nationwide strike on Monday. The membership of this trade union is about eight lakh. Israel's economic activity was largely paralyzed by the strike. An Israeli labor court later ordered the workers to return to work.
Israeli politicians appeared divided over the strike. Bezalel Smotrich, the country's far-right finance minister, submitted an emergency petition to the attorney general to end the strike.
Smotrich opposes the Gaza ceasefire agreement. He also directed not to pay salaries to those who participated in the Histradrot strike.
According to Smotrich, Histradrot chief Aaron Bar-David has largely sided with Hamas by undermining Israel's economy.
Israel's opposition leader Yair Lapid called on the government to reach a ceasefire agreement. He also supported the strike.
Yair Lapid charged that the Netanyahu government was pushing Israel into a deeper anarchy.
Yar Lapid believes that the people are showing incredible patience despite the extremely chaotic activities of the Netanyahu government.
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is intensifying by the day. For the past few weeks, talks have been going on for a cease-fire deal in Gaza brokered by the US, Qatar and Egypt. But there is no progress in this discussion.
It is now being said from inside and outside of Israel that the deal is not happening because of Netanyahu. He is adding irrelevant and strange claims to the contract. These demands are related to his political interests.
Khalil al-Hayya, a senior leader of the political wing of Hamas, told Al Jazeera on Monday that Netanyahu is not even willing to release some elderly Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons in exchange for hostages.
Israel's Netanyahu government has not yet acknowledged or denied this accusation made by Hamas.
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