Israel union chief orders 'complete strike' in support of Gaza hostages

This combination of pictures created on September 1, 2024, shows undated portraits provided by The Hostages Families Forum Headquarters, representing families of Israeli hostages held by Palestinian militants in Gaza. [AFP]

The head of Israel's powerful Histadrut trade union ordered a "complete strike" in support of Gaza hostages on Monday and urged a deal to secure their release after six more were announced dead.

"We must stop the abandonment of the hostages... I have come to the conclusion that only our intervention can shake those who need to be shaken," Histadrut chairman Arnon Bar-David said in a statement on Sunday.

"Starting tomorrow at six in the morning, the entire Israeli economy will go on complete strike."

As part of the strike "all take-offs and landings at Ben Gurion airport will stop from 8:00 am (0500 GMT)," Bar-David said.

"We need to reach a deal, a deal that is more important than anything else," he said.

"A deal is not progressing due to political considerations and this is unacceptable."

Earlier on Sunday, the Israeli military announced it had recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in Gaza, sparking anger and grief among families of hostages.

Some 251 hostages were seized during Hamas's October 7 attack that triggered the ongoing war, 97 of whom remain captive in Gaza including 33 the army says are dead. Scores were released during a negotiated one-week truce in November.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel's offensive has killed at least 40,738 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.

The United States, Egypt and Qatar have served as mediators during months-long talks to secure a ceasefire and hostage release deal, so far to no avail.

"The cries of our children being murdered in the tunnels in Gaza is unacceptable," Bar-David said.

"We are in a state of flux, and we don't stop receiving body bags."

'End this war'

On Sunday afternoon, hostages' loved ones and hundreds of their supporters gathered outside a government office where a cabinet meeting was scheduled to take place.

Blowing whistles, banging drums and screaming through loudspeakers, they demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government make concessions so a deal can be finalised.

"Stop murdering the hostages by your actions, by your decisions. You are killing them, they are in the tunnels and you must sign the deal. We must end this war," shouted Eyal Kalderon, cousin of French-Israeli hostage Ofer Kalderon who is still being held.

"Unfortunately, I think that they hear us, but they have different issues that worry them," Kalderon later told AFP. "Political issues -- they want to stay on their chair."

Kalderon said he had been calling for a general strike for months and was happy the Histadrut union was taking action.

"This was supposed to take place six months ago. But at least maybe it will help to save the lives" of those still held in Gaza, he said.

Hannah Bartell also joined the demonstration, carrying a sign featuring a picture of US-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was among the six announced dead on Sunday.

The sign read "BRING HERSH HOME", and Bartell had placed across it a piece of masking tape on which she had written "Sorry" in English and Hebrew.

"I don't know if they're hearing me clearly up until this point," she said of the government, adding that she hoped people supported the general strike.

"I'll continue to be here. I'll continue to bring more friends with me, because it gets more and more important with each day that passes that we need a deal."