Protests in Israel grow as major strike planned after 6 more hostages die in Gaza

JERUSALEM — Grieving and angry Israelis took to the streets Sunday night after six more hostages were found in the Gaza Strip, demanding — chanting “Now! Now!” — that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reach a ceasefire with Hamas and bring the remaining captives home.

Israel’s largest labor union, the Histadrut, called a general strike Monday to pressure the government — the first since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war. The strike is expected to shut down or disrupt key sectors of the economy, including banking, health care and the country’s main airport.

Tens of thousands of Israelis were expected to protest Sunday night. Many blame Netanyahu for failing to bring the hostages back alive by reaching a deal with Hamas that would have ended nearly 11 months of war. Negotiations have dragged on for months. The Israeli military has acknowledged the difficulty of rescuing the hostages and said the deal is the only way to achieve a large-scale return.

“I give a cry of humanity,” said one protester, who gave his name as Amos, as thousands of people, some crying, gathered outside Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem.

The military said all six hostages were killed shortly before Israeli forces arrived. Netanyahu said Israel would hold Hamas accountable for killing the hostages “in cold blood” and blamed the militant group for stalling negotiations, saying “whoever is murdering hostages doesn’t want an agreement.”

Militants captured 23-year-old Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin and four others hostage at a music festival in southern Israel during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war.

Born in Berkeley, California, he lost part of his left arm in a grenade attack. In April, Hamas released a video showing him alive but without his left arm, sparking new protests in Israel.

The army identified the other dead hostages as Ori Danino, 25; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Almog Sarusi, 27; and Alexander Lobanov, 33; who were also taken from the music festival. The sixth, Carmel Gat, 40, was kidnapped from the nearby farming community of Be’eri.

The bodies were reportedly fished out of a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, about a kilometer (half a mile) from where another hostage, 52-year-old Qaeda Farhan Alkadi, was rescued alive last week.

Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, a military spokesman, said the army believes there are hostages in the area but has no specific intelligence. He said Israeli forces found bodies several dozen meters (yards) underground as “fighting continued,” but there was no shooting in the tunnel itself.

He said there was no doubt that Hamas killed them.

Hamas offered to release the hostages in exchange for an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including prominent militants.

Izzat al-Rishq, a senior Hamas official, said the hostages would still be alive if Israel had accepted the U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal, which Hamas reportedly agreed to in July.

Hostage families demand ‘complete shutdown of the country’

Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed, saying military pressure is necessary to free the hostages.

Critics have accused Netanyahu of stalling ceasefire talks and putting his own interests ahead of those of the hostages. An end to the war would likely lead to an investigation into his government’s failures in the Oct. 7 attacks, the collapse of his government and early elections.

“I think it’s an earthquake. It’s not just another step in the war,” said Nomi Bar-Yaacov, a fellow at Chatham House’s International Security Program, shortly before Sunday’s protests began.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Netanyahu got into a screaming argument at a security cabinet meeting on Thursday with his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, who accused him of prioritizing control of a strategic corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border — a major sticking point in the talks — over the lives of the hostages. The cabinet reportedly voted to stay in the corridor despite Gallant’s objections, who said it would make a hostage deal impossible.

An Israeli official confirmed the reports and said three hostages — Goldberg-Polin, Yerushalmi and Gat — were to be released in the first phase of a ceasefire proposal discussed in July. The official was not authorized to brief media on the negotiations and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“On behalf of the state of Israel, I hold their families close to my heart and ask for forgiveness,” Gallant said Sunday after the bodies were recovered. He later called on the cabinet to reverse its decision.

The hostage families forum has demanded a “complete shutdown of the country” to press for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages. “The agreement to return the hostages has been on the table for more than two months. If not for delays, sabotage and excuses, those whose deaths we learned about this morning would probably still be alive,” it said in a statement.

Even a mass outpouring of anger would not immediately threaten Netanyahu or his intransigent government. He still controls a majority in parliament. But he has bowed to public pressure before. Mass protests prompted him to rescind the resignation of his defense minister last year, and a general strike last year helped delay his controversial judicial reform.

A campaign with a wide reach

Goldberg-Polin’s parents, U.S.-born immigrants to Israel, have become perhaps the most high-profile hostage relatives on the international stage, meeting with Biden, Pope Francis and others and calling on the United Nations to free all hostages.

On Aug. 21, his parents addressed a silent hall at the Democratic National Convention — to much applause and chants of “take him home.”

“This is a political convention. But the need for our only son — and all the beloved hostages — to be home is not a political issue. It’s a humanitarian issue,” said his father, Jon Polin. His mother, Rachel, who bowed her head during the applause and touched her chest, said: “Hersh, if you can hear us, we love you, be strong, survive.”

US President Joe Biden, who met with Goldberg-Polin’s parents, said he was “devastated and outraged”. He added: “Make no mistake, the Hamas leadership will pay for these crimes. And we will work around the clock to reach an agreement to secure the release of the remaining hostages.”

Goldberg-Polin’s parents wanted to protect their son and others from being reduced to mere human numbers, describing Hersh as a music and soccer lover and a traveler who planned to attend university after his military service ended.

Some 250 hostages were taken on October 7. Israel now believes 101 are still in captivity, including 35 who are presumed dead. More than 100 people were freed during a week-long ceasefire in November in exchange for the release of Palestinians held captive by Israel. Eight were rescued by Israeli forces.

Two previous Israeli hostage-freeing operations killed dozens of Palestinians. Hamas says several hostages were killed in Israeli airstrikes and failed rescue attempts. Israeli forces mistakenly killed three Israelis who escaped captivity in December.

Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, when they swept into southern Israel on October 7, attacking military bases and several farming communities.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who did not say how many were militants. It has displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, often multiple times, and plunged the besieged territory into a humanitarian catastrophe.

Associated Press journalists Samy Magdy in Cairo and Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.