Have the hostage-taking brought Israel to the brink of collapse?

Almost eleven months after the start of the war that has left the country isolated and deeply divided, an outbreak has occurred in Israel.

A nationwide strike threatened to bring the country's economy to a standstill on Monday after six hostages held in Gaza since October 7 were found dead in the enclave. The news sparked mass protests involving hundreds of thousands of people in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and elsewhere.

The dramatic show of defiance disrupted air traffic, hospitals and banks, a furious escalation of a months-long campaign to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into agreeing to a ceasefire deal with Hamas.

Desperate hostage families, large sections of the public and some of Netanyahu's own ministers hoped that the events of the weekend could force him to change course. But there was no sign of this on Monday, as the government had successfully attempted to force an early end to the general strike in the Israeli labor court.

“A lot of anger”

Protesters had blocked roads and marched to government buildings to demand a ceasefire after the bodies of Israeli-American men Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Master Sgt. Ori Danino were found nearly 11 months after they were taken hostage in the October 7 Hamas terror attacks.

Netanyahu and U.S. officials have publicly blamed Hamas for the failure to reach an agreement, while the Israeli military continued its assault on the devastated Palestinian enclave.

But the protesters had no doubts and accused their government of abandoning the hostages after failing to negotiate an agreement on the release of the remaining prisoners.

Follow live updates

“There is a lot of anger,” Nimrod Goren, a senior fellow for Israel affairs at the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Institute, told NBC News.

The fate of the six hostages found dead in Gaza, he said in a telephone interview on Monday, “actually reflects the deepest fears that this hostage-taking brought with it. A few days ago they were still alive, and despite military pressure they could not be brought home.”

While public outrage in Israel appears to have reached a peak, it remains to be seen whether this will force Netanyahu to act, Goren said.

“We need to see how this dynamic develops because ultimately it must lead to policy action,” he said.

“Save the others”

The nationwide strike took place as grieving families held funerals for their loved ones they had fought for months to bring home.

A large crowd gathered at Goldberg-Polin's funeral on Monday, with many holding Israeli flags and the flag of Hapoel Tel Aviv, the 23-year-old's favorite soccer team, as his parents paid their heartbreaking final respects to their son.

“Hersh, we failed you, we all failed you,” said his father, Jon Polin. “You wouldn't have failed yourself. You would have fought harder for justice.”

“How are we going to live the rest of our lives without you?” asked his mother, Rachel Goldberg. “I pray that your death will be a turning point in this terrible situation we are all trapped in.”

“Finally, my sweet boy, finally, finally, finally, finally you are free,” she said.

Israel's President Isaac Herzog also spoke at the funeral. “As a human being, as a father and as the President of the State of Israel, I want to say how sorry I am,” he said. “How sorry I am that we did not protect Hersh on that dark day. How sorry I am that we did not bring him home.”

The funeral of 40-year-old Carmel Gat was also scheduled to take place later that day.

“It's too late for Carmel. Your blood is on your hands, Netanyahu. But you can still save the others,” her cousin Gil Dickmann told NBC News in Tel Aviv.

In a poll conducted in May by the Jerusalem-based Israel Democracy Institute, a majority of Israeli Jews (56 percent) said they believed reaching an agreement to release hostages held in Gaza should be a higher priority than expanding military operations in the southern Gaza Strip.

But despite optimism from Washington and increased efforts in recent weeks to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas, there has been no breakthrough.

The Biden administration has repeatedly accused Hamas of trying to prevent a deal, but recently U.S. and foreign officials have said that conditions imposed by Netanyahu have also hampered efforts. Biden told reporters on Monday that Netanyahu is not doing enough to reach an agreement.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday called on Israel's security cabinet to meet and reverse a decision seen as a sticking point in the negotiations – a demand to continue to allow the country to maintain a presence along the Philadelphia Corridor, which forms the border between Gaza and Egypt.

“It is too late for the kidnapped people who were murdered in cold blood,” he said in a post on X. “The kidnapped people who are still in Hamas captivity must be brought back home.”

Goren repeated a similar warning, saying that if Netanyahu sticks to his condition, the “prospects of a future agreement are virtually zero” and the hostages who continue to be held in the enclave “could suffer the same fate” as the last prisoners who died in the war.

According to Israeli authorities, around 250 people were taken hostage and around 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas attacks on October 7. Around 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza, and around a third of them are believed to be dead.

According to local authorities, more than 40,000 people have been killed during the months-long Israeli offensive against the Gaza enclave.