Israeli union calls strike, hostage deal pressure rises

[Pelican Press 0]

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******** union calls strike, ******** deal pressure rises

The head of *******’s biggest labour union has called for a general strike to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to bring back ******** hostages still held by ****** in the Gaza Strip as thousands of protesters took to the streets.

Earlier, ******* recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in southern Gaza where they were apparently ******* not long before ******** troops reached them, according to the military, prompting fury and grief among Israelis.

The call for a one-day general strike on Monday by Arnon Bar-David, whose Histadrut union represents hundreds of thousands of workers, was backed by *******’s main manufacturers and entrepreneurs in the high-tech sector.

The alliance of some of the most powerful voices in *******’s economy reflected the scale of public anger over the deaths of the six hostages, who were among some 250 people seized by ****** militants on October 7 last year.

“We must reach a deal (on the return of the surviving hostages). A deal is more important than anything else,” Bar-David told a press conference.

“We are getting body bags instead of a deal.”

Ben Gurion Airport, *******’s main air transport hub, will be closed from 8am on Monday, he said.

Municipal services in *******’s economic hub Tel Aviv will also be shut for part of Monday.

*******’s Manufacturers’ Association said it backed the strike and accused the government of failing in its “moral duty” to bring the hostages back 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 ******** economy,” association head Ron Tomer said.

******** opposition leader and former prime minister Yair Lapid earlier threw his support behind the strike action.

Thousands of protesters blocked roads on Sunday in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and demonstrated outside Netanyahu’s residence.

The Hostages Families Forum, which represents the families of some of those held in Gaza, said the ****** of the six was the direct result of Netanyahu’s ******** to secure a deal to halt the fighting and bring their loved ones home.

“They were all murdered in the last few days, after surviving almost 11 months of ******, ******** and starvation in ****** captivity,” the group said in a statement.

The six include the body of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, a dual US-******** citizen and arguably the best-known ********.

His parents had recently spoken at the US Democratic National convention in Chicago, pleading for his release.

The other hostages were: Alexander Lobanov, 32, Almog Sarusi, 27, Ori Danino, 25, and two women – Carmel Gat, 40, and Eden Yerushalmi, 24.

About a third of the 101 ******** and foreign captives still in Gaza are believed to have *****, with the fate of the others unknown.

Netanyahu and many hardliners in his government, as well their supporters, remain opposed to any ******** deal that would release militants from ******** prisons and help to keep ****** in power.

Netanyahu said on Sunday ******* was committed to concluding a ******** deal but he blamed ****** for refusing to accept proposals agreed with the ******* States.

******** Defence Minister Yoav Gallant also urged Netanyahu on Sunday to conclude a ceasefire deal with ******.

“It’s too late for the abductees who were murdered in cold blood. The abductees who remain in the captivity of ****** must be returned home,” he said on X.

“The political-security cabinet must convene immediately and reverse the decision made on Thursday,” he said, referring to a decision by the cabinet to insist on keeping troops in the so-called Philadelphi corridor, along the southern edge of the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu’s insistence on keeping troops in the corridor to prevent ****** smuggling weapons in from Egypt, has been widely seen as one of the major obstacles to an agreement with ****** in talks brokered by Egypt and Qatar.

with DPA

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