Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in Gaza where it said they were killed shortly before its troops reached them, triggering protests by Israelis on Sunday and planned labour strikes over the failure to save them.
Thousands of Israelis demonstrated in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu do more to bring the remaining hostages home from Gaza. Labour leaders urged workers to down tools on Monday.
The Israeli military announced the recovery of the bodies from underground in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, as a polio vaccination campaign began in the war-shattered Palestinian territory and violence flared in the occupied West Bank.
The bodies of Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino have been returned to Israel, military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters.
A forensic examination determined that they had been “murdered by Hamas terrorists in a number of shots at close range” 48-72 hours previously, an Israeli health ministry spokesperson said.
Netanyahu, who faces growing calls to end nearly 11 months of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza with a deal that includes a ceasefire and the release of remaining hostages, said Israel would not rest until it caught those responsible.
“Whoever murders hostages – does not want a deal,” he said.
Senior Hamas officials said that Israel, in its refusal to sign a ceasefire agreement, was to blame for the deaths.
“Netanyahu is responsible for the killing of Israeli prisoners,” senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters. “The Israelis should choose between Netanyahu and the deal.”
Amid public anger over the fate of the hostages, the head of Israel’s trades union federation, Arnon Bar-David, called for a general strike on Monday to pressure the government into signing a deal, and said Ben Gurion airport, Israel’s main air transport hub, would be closed from 8 a.m. (0500 GMT).
“A deal is more important than anything else,” he said. Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who has clashed frequently with Netanyahu, also called for a deal and opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yair Lapid urged people to join the demonstration in Tel Aviv.
In Jerusalem, protesters blocked roads and demonstrated outside the prime minister’s residence. Some lined roads, waving Israeli flags in honour of the six hostages. Aerial footage showed Tel Aviv’s main highway blocked with protesters holding flags with pictures of the slain hostages.
Municipal services in Tel Aviv and other sites across Israel planned a half-day strike on Monday in solidarity with hostages and their families.
About 250 hostages were captured during the Hamas-led shock incursion into southern Israel on Oct. 7 that sparked Israel’s retaliatory war in Gaza.
The deaths of the six leave 101 Israeli and foreign captives still in Gaza, but Israel believes around a third of these have died, with the fate of others unknown.
The Hostage Families Forum called on Netanyahu to take responsibility and explain what was holding up an agreement.
“They were all murdered in the last few days, after surviving almost 11 months of abuse, torture, and starvation in Hamas captivity. The delay in signing the deal has led to their deaths and those of many other hostages,” it said.
