Tens of thousands demonstrate in Tel Aviv for a ceasefire and release of hostages

The protesters called on the government to quickly agree to a ceasefire and secure the release of the remaining 101 Gaza hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has asked Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to file an emergency motion with the courts to prevent the planned attack.

The remains of the hostages were recovered on Saturday “from an underground tunnel in the Rafah area” in the southern Gaza Strip, the military said.

They were among 251 hostages kidnapped during Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel that sparked the ongoing war. Ninety-seven of them remain in Gaza, including 33 who the army says are dead.

During a negotiated week-long ceasefire in November, many people were released, but relatives of those still detained believe that not enough is being done to free them.

The campaign group Hostages and Missing Families Forum said a negotiated “deal for the return of the hostages” was urgently needed.

“Had it not been for the delays, acts of sabotage and excuses” during the months-long mediation efforts, “the six hostages would probably still be alive,” it said in a statement.

The families called for a nationwide general strike to force the government to reach an agreement to release the remaining prisoners.

Shortly afterwards, Histadrut ordered a “full strike” for Monday.

“I have come to the conclusion that only our intervention can shake up those who need to shake up,” said Histadrut chairman Arnon bar David.

“Starting tomorrow at six o’clock in the morning, the entire Israeli economy will go on a total strike.

“For political reasons, an agreement cannot be reached and that is unacceptable.”

The six hostages are Carmel Gat, who was kidnapped from a kibbutz community near the Gaza border, as well as Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Ori Danino, US-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin and Russian-Israeli Alexander Lobanov – all abducted by Palestinian militants at a music festival.

Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said all six were “abducted alive on the morning of October 7” and “brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before our arrival.”

Qatar-based Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq said the six were “killed by Zionist (Israeli) bombings,” an allegation the military denied.

A senior Hamas official told reporters on condition of anonymity that “authorization” had been given for the release of “some” of the six in a possible hostage exchange as part of a yet-to-be-agreed deal.

Critics in Israel accused Netanyahu of prolonging the war for political reasons.

Netanyahu told Lobanov's parents on Sunday: “I want to tell you how much I regret that I did not manage to bring Sasha back alive and I ask for your forgiveness.”

He blamed Hamas leaders for “killing the hostages and not wanting an agreement” and vowed to “settle accounts” with them.

Biden said he was “devastated and outraged” by the deaths of the hostages, but told reporters he “remained optimistic” that a ceasefire and agreement on the hostages' release could be reached.

The Biden administration is involved in mediating a ceasefire along with Qatar and Egypt. The Washington Post reported, citing an unnamed senior administration official, that the US is negotiating drafts of a final “eat or die” agreement that it plans to present to Israel and Hamas.

As soldiers continued their fifth day of coordinated raids against Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank, Israeli police said three officers were killed in a “shooting attack.”

A 20-year-old soldier was killed on Saturday in the attacks, which were part of what the Israeli army called an “anti-terror operation.”

In the northern West Bank, a journalist saw Israeli bulldozers in the city center of Jenin. A day earlier, an official said soldiers had destroyed most of the roads and electricity and water had been cut off in the adjacent refugee camp.

Later Sunday, a journalist heard loud explosions near the camp and saw black smoke over the city.

According to official figures, 23 Israelis, including soldiers, were killed in Palestinian attacks or army operations during the same period.

There were to be “humanitarian pauses in the war” in Gaza to support a large-scale polio vaccination campaign that began in earnest on Sunday, a health official told reporters.

The program was officially launched on Sunday in three health centers in central Gaza, said Yasser Shaaban, director of Al-Awda Hospital.

“We hope that this vaccination campaign for children will be peaceful,” said Shaaban, noting that “many drones” were flying overhead.

Louise Wateridge, a spokeswoman for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, later said that nearly 2,000 children were initially vaccinated on Sunday.

Reporting by Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg, dpa, Reuters