Israelis erupt in protest demanding ceasefire after 6 more hostages die in Gaza

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

Israel’s largest labor union, the Histadrut, also put pressure on the government by calling a general strike Monday — the first since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war. The strike aims to close 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. Many blame Netanyahu for failing to reach a ceasefire in nearly 11 months of war. Negotiations have dragged on for months. The Israeli military has acknowledged the difficulty of rescuing dozens of remaining hostages and said a deal is the only way to bring about 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 blamed Hamas militants for stalling the talks, saying that “whoever murders hostages doesn’t want an agreement.”

Militants took Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, and four others hostage at a music festival in southern Israel. Goldberg-Polin, of Berkeley, California, lost part of his left arm in a grenade attack. In April, Hamas released a video showing him alive, 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; also taken from the festival. A sixth, Carmel Gat, 40, was kidnapped from the nearby farming community of Be’eri.

The army said the bodies were fished out of a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, about half a mile from where another hostage was rescued alive last week.

Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, a military spokesman, said Israeli forces found the bodies dozens of yards underground because “there was fighting,” but there was no shooting in the tunnel itself. He added that there was no doubt Hamas killed them.

Hamas offered to release the hostages in exchange for an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza 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 that Hamas reportedly agreed to in July.

The funerals for the hostages began, with even greater outrage. Sarusi’s body was wrapped in an Israeli flag. “You were abandoned non-stop, every day, hour after hour, for 331 days,” his mother, Nira, said. “You and so many beautiful and pure souls. Enough. Not anymore.”

Hostage families call for ‘complete shutdown of the country’

Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed.

Critics have accused him of putting his own interests ahead of those of the hostages. An end to the war is likely to lead to an investigation into his government’s failures in the October 7 attacks, the government’s collapse 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 during a security cabinet meeting on Thursday, Netanyahu got into an argument with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who accused him of putting control of a strategic corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border – a major sticking point in the talks – ahead of the lives of hostages.

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 their forgiveness,” Gallant said on Sunday.

The hostage families forum has demanded a “complete shutdown of the country” to press for a ceasefire and the release of hostages. “If it weren’t for the 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 far-right 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 a controversial judicial reform.

A family campaign with great significance

Goldberg-Polin’s parents, U.S.-born immigrants to Israel, have become perhaps the most high-profile relatives of the hostages on the international stage, meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden and Pope Francis, and on Aug. 21, speaking at the Democratic National Convention — to much applause and chants of “bring him home.”

His mother, Rachel, who bowed her head during the applause and touched her chest, said: “Hersh, if you can hear us, we love you, stay strong and survive.”

Biden said Sunday he was “devastated and outraged.” The White House said it had spoken to Goldberg-Polin’s parents and offered its condolences.

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

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, when they swept into southern Israel on Oct. 7. 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.

— By JOSEF FEDERMAN Associated Press

Associated Press reporters Samy Magdy in Cairo, Danica Kirka in London and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.