What’s the Reason Behind Such Large Protests and Strikes in Israel!

New protests erupted across Israel after the recovery of six hostages’ bodies from the Gaza Strip last Saturday. A nationwide strike was called.

The Gaza war started almost 11 months ago. There have never been such large and widespread protests in Israel since the start of this war.

Last Saturday, Israeli forces recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in the Rafah area of southern Gaza. One of them was a dual citizen of the United States. They are Carmel Gat, Aiden Yerushalmiy, Harsh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Uri Danino, and Almog Sarusi.

After the recovery of the six hostages’ bodies, there was a widespread reaction among ordinary Israelis. Protests spread across Israel.

Last Sunday, several hundred thousand people took to the streets to protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. They demanded an immediate agreement for the release of the hostages.

Yesterday, Monday, Israel’s main trade union, Histadrut, observed a nationwide strike. The strike virtually paralyzed various important cities in Israel, including Tel Aviv.

On October 7 last year, Hamas, a Gaza-based Palestinian independence-seeking organization, attacked Israel. At that time, 251 people were taken hostage and brought to Gaza.

Several hostages were released during a week-long ceasefire last November. In addition, Israeli forces have rescued quite a few hostages, both alive and dead, at various times.

The Israeli military says 97 hostages are still in Hamas’ hands in Gaza. A total of 33 hostages have died.

Israeli protesters allege that Netanyahu has repeatedly failed to reach an agreement to safely return the hostages from Gaza. They claim his government is not taking effective steps to free those who are still captive.

The protesters demand that the Netanyahu government change its current position to save the lives of the remaining hostages in Gaza and bring them back safely to Israel. They urge the government to quickly reach an agreement.

The Israeli military claims that Hamas killed six hostages shortly before they were about to be rescued.

Netanyahu has vowed a ‘strong’ response to the hostage deaths.

However, these statements have only increased the anger of ordinary Israelis against the Netanyahu government.

Last Sunday, unprecedented protests in Israel expressed intense frustration. Many roads were blocked as hundreds of thousands of people participated.

Israel’s largest trade union, Histadrut, called for a nationwide strike on Monday. This union has about 800,000 members. The strike largely paralyzed Israel’s economic activities. Later, an Israeli labor court ordered workers to return to work.

Israeli politicians are divided over the strike. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich filed an urgent petition with the Attorney General to stop the strike.

Smotrich opposes a Gaza ceasefire agreement. He also instructed not to pay those who participated in the Histadrut strike.

Smotrich claims that Histadrut’s leader, Arnon Bar-David, has essentially chosen Hamas’ side by weakening Israel’s economy.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid has called on the government to reach a ceasefire agreement. He also supports the strike.

Yair Lapid accuses the Netanyahu government of pushing Israel towards deep chaos.

Lapid believes that the public is showing incredible patience despite the extremely disorganized actions of the Netanyahu government.

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is intensifying day by day. For the past few weeks, talks for a ceasefire agreement in Gaza have been ongoing with mediation from the United States, Qatar, and Egypt. But there has been no progress in these discussions.

Now, both inside and outside Israel, it’s being said that Netanyahu is the reason the agreement isn’t happening. He’s adding irrelevant and bizarre demands to the agreement, which are related to his political interests.

Khalil al-Hayya, a senior leader of Hamas’ political wing, told Al Jazeera on Monday that Netanyahu is not even agreeing to release a few elderly Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for hostages.

The Netanyahu government has neither confirmed nor denied this allegation made by Hamas so far.