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06-09-2024
JERUSALEM: Israel’s biggest trade union has said hundreds of thousands of people joined the general strike it called to put pressure on the government to agree a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas.
Businesses, schools and transport were disrupted before a court ordered everyone to return to work, ruling that Histadrut’s strike was largely political.
Thousands also took part in fresh protests called by hostages’ families to express their anger at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s failure to bring home their loved ones after almost 11 months.
Tensions have been running high since the bodies of six hostages were found on Saturday. Israel said they were shot and killed by Hamas.
Many accuse Netanyahu of blocking a deal to prioritize his own political survival, a claim he rejects.
His far-right allies have threatened to pull out of the coalition government, undermining his chances of staying in power, if he were to accept a deal tied to a permanent ceasefire before Hamas was destroyed.
The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
More than 40,780 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators are trying to broker a ceasefire deal that would see Hamas release the 97 hostages still being held, including 33 who are presumed dead, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
When asked by reporters in Washington if he thought Netanyahu was doing enough to secure an agreement, US President Joe Biden replied: “No.”
He spoke after meeting American mediators who he said “very close” to presenting what US media described as a final proposal to Israel and Hamas.
US President Joe Biden has said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not doing enough to secure a hostage deal and ceasefire with Hamas, amid reports that a new “final” proposal would be sent to the Israeli leader.
Biden and Kamala Harris, his vice-president, met US negotiators to hammer out a proposal, as protests engulfed Israel on Monday after the discovery of six more hostage bodies in Gaza.
Asked whether Netanyahu was doing enough, Biden replied “no”. He added that the US would not give up, and would “push as hard as we can” for a deal.
US officials have characterized this latest proposal as a “take it or leave it deal”, the Washington Post has reported.
Among the bodies recovered from Gaza on Saturday was that of 23-year-old Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
He became one of the most recognizable hostages in the crisis after being seized by Hamas gunmen at a music festival in southern Israel on 7 October last year.
The discovery of the bodies has caused widespread protests in Israel from those critical of Netanyahu’s handling of the war and hostage crisis.
On Monday, thousands of people joined a strike called by the country’s biggest trade union, in an effort to put pressure on Netanyahu to close out a deal.
Goldberg-Polin’s funeral was held in Jerusalem on the same day, attended by thousands.
His mother Rachel who also spoke at last month’s Democratic convention in the US described her torment. President Isaac Herzog offered an apology that his country had “failed” to protect Goldberg-Polin or bring him home. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
