There were widespread disruptions across Israel on Monday as members of the country’s largest labor union went on strike to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a deal to bring home the remaining hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
The leader of the Histadrut union, which has hundreds of thousands of members in Israel, called for the strike on Sunday after news broke of the recovery of the bodies of six hostages who had previously been known to be alive, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
The Israel Defense Forces said all six were killed a short time before their bodies were found by Israeli troops inside a tunnel in Gaza.
Ronen Zvulun / REUTERS
“My message to Prime Minister Netanyahu is that my brother Keith and all the remaining hostages need to be home immediately,” Israeli-American Lee Seigel, whose brother Keith is among the roughly 75 hostages still believed to be held alive in Gaza, told CBS News at a protest on Sunday that drew hundreds of thousands of Israelis onto the streets.
Seigel said a deal was needed immediately for “those who are alive, to start rebuilding, as the country needs to rebuild, and those who are deceased, for a proper burial. Eleven months, almost 11 months of war is too much, too long,” he said.
While many private sector businesses were open as usual on Monday, municipal services as well as services at Israel’s main air transport hub, Ben Gurion Airport, were at least partially disrupted. Banks were closed and hospitals were only partially operating, the Reuters news agency reported.
Israel’s labor court ruled that the general strike would need to end by 2:30 p.m. local time on Monday, and the ruling was accepted by the union.
The nationwide strike came after months of regular protests led by the families of the hostages over Netanyahu’s handling of negotiations aimed at securing a cease-fire and hostage release agreement.
As negotiations have taken place between Israel and Hamas through mediators including Qatar, Egypt and the United States, one of the biggest recent sticking points has been whether Israel would agree to pull back its troops from the border area between Gaza and Egypt known as the Philadelphi Corridor after any deal.
“The country needs quiet. The region needs quiet,” Seigel told CBS News. “Politics are driving the speech, the [cease-fire] non-negotiations negotiations, and are driving an extreme government in attempts to hold on to their power.”
Seigel said the killing of the six additional hostages meant President Biden should rethink the way the U.S. supports the Israeli government.
The war “serves political interests that do not jibe with the needs of our country, nor the region, nor Gaza,” Seigel said. “President Biden… we know you will not give up. But not giving up at this point means doing whatever is necessary. The United States can leverage many different interests, issues within Israel, within the region… They need to make some very, very hard decisions now that we have crossed a red line, where everything is available in the arsenal of the United States government to bring a cease-fire, to bring quiet and return hostages.”
The Hostages Families Forum via AP
The six hostages whose bodies were recovered were Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Master Sgt. Ori Danino. The Israeli Ministry of Health said that autopsies showed they had each been shot at close range on Thursday or Friday.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s family confirmed his death in a statement released early Sunday, thanking supporters and asking for privacy. His funeral was scheduled for later on Monday.
President Biden, who spoke to the Goldberg-Polin family, said he was “devastated and outraged” by Goldberg-Polin’s killing.
“Hersh was among the innocents brutally attacked while attending a music festival for peace in Israel on October 7. He lost his arm helping friends and strangers during Hamas’ savage massacre,” Mr. Biden said.
Netanyahu blamed Hamas for the stalled cease-fire negotiations, saying “whoever murders hostages doesn’t want a deal.”
Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were scheduled to meet with the team representing the U.S. in the hostage deal negotiations at the White House later on Monday.
contributed to this report.