Nearly 11 months into a war that has left the country isolated and deeply divided, Israel has erupted.
A nationwide strike threatened to bring the nation’s economy to a standstill on Monday after six hostages held in Gaza since Oct. 7 were found dead in the enclave, news that fueled mass protests featuring hundreds of thousands of people in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and beyond.
The dramatic display of dissent disrupted flights, hospitals and banks in an angry escalation of a monthslong campaign to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a cease-fire deal with Hamas.
Despairing hostage families, large sections of the public and some of Netanyahu’s own ministers hoped the weekend’s events might force him to change course. But there was little immediate sign of that Monday, with the government winning its bid to force an early end to the general strike in Israel’s labor court.
Right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the court had agreed that the strike was “political and illegal.”
‘A lot of anger’
Protesters had blocked roads and marched on government buildings to demand a truce deal after the bodies of Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Master Sgt. Ori Danino were found nearly 11 months after they were taken hostage during Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks.
Netanyahu and U.S. officials have publicly blamed Hamas for the failure to reach a deal, while Israel’s military has pressed ahead with its assault on the devastated Palestinian enclave.
But protesters were in no doubt, accusing their government of having abandoned the hostages after failing to negotiate a cease-fire that would see the remaining captives released.
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“There’s a lot of anger,” Nimrod Goren, a senior fellow for Israeli Affairs at the Middle East Institute, which is based in Washington, D.C., told NBC News.
The fate of the six hostages found dead in Gaza, he said in a phone interview on Monday, “really reflected the deepest fears that were around this hostage crisis, knowing that they were alive just a few days ago and that military pressure did not manage to bring them home.”
