Hostage deaths spark labor strike, Gaza cease-fire protests

A large crowd gathered for the funeral of Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose body was discovered along with five other hostages in Gaza last week.

Some of those waiting outside Har Hamenuchot cemetery, Jerusalem’s largest, waved Israeli flags and those of Hapoel Tel Aviv Football Club, of which Hersh was a fan.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog is expected to deliver a eulogy after an invitation from his family, his spokesperson said.

Hersh’s parents, Jon and Rachel, led a tireless and very public campaign to free their son and other hostages.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz has vowed that Israel will respond “with full force” after the Israeli army recovered the bodies of six hostages in Gaza last week.

“The Hamas terror organization brutally executed six hostages to instill fear and attempt to fracture Israeli society,” Katz wrote in a post on X this morning. “Israel will respond with full force to this heinous crime. Hamas is responsible and will pay the full price.”

The Israeli Health Ministry said yesterday that the six hostages were killed by Hamas “in a number of short-range shots” just days before their bodies were found. Hamas has blamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the U.S. for the hostages’ deaths, alleging without evidence that the hostages were killed by the Israeli army’s bullets.

The parents of American-Israeli hostage Omer Neutra, who remains held in Gaza, told NBC’s “TODAY” this morning that the news of the deaths of six hostages over the weekend came as a “devastating” blow.

Ronen and Orna Neutra said their son is almost the same age as Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose body was among those retrieved by Israeli forces and whose parents led a tireless campaign to free their son and other hostages.

“To have this happen now, it shouldn’t have happened,” Orna Neutra said, adding that an earlier deal could have seen Hersh released as his arm was severed during the Oct. 7 attack, and he could have qualified for the next release of hostages.

“I think it’s time for action,” she added. “It’s been time for action for a long time now, and we’re just seeing the results of inactivity.”

A Tel Aviv court issued an injunction this afternoon to end the nationwide strike hours earlier than organizers planned.

“The court accepted our position and determined that the Histadrut’s strike was political and illegal,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote on X, referring to the country’s largest labor union.

Israeli media reported that the court ordered the strike to end at 2:30 p.m. local time (7:30 a.m. ET).

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid attends a rally in Tel Aviv today, calling for the release of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas since Oct. 7.

Around 87,000 children received a lifesaving polio vaccine on the first day of a mass effort to stop the spread of the virus inside Gaza, according to numbers provided by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

The agency said it was administering the vaccine in the middle area of the Gaza Strip. “We are doing everything possible to help all children under 10 years of age receive the vaccination,” it said in a post on X.

The Gaza Health Ministry also said last night that at least 72,611 children had been vaccinated on the first day.

Israel and Hamas have agreed to three separate, zoned three-day pauses in fighting in Gaza to allow for the vaccination of some 640,000 children, the World Health Organization said last week.

It came after a baby was partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus last month in the first such case in the territory in 25 years.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets last night and more protests were planned today alongside the general strike, as frustration builds with the failure by the Israeli government to reach a cease-fire deal, after the deaths of six hostages in captivity in Gaza.

In what appears to be the largest public outpouring of anger and grief in Israel the 11 months of war, demonstrations took place in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and other cities across the country.

In Jerusalem, protesters blocked streets and demonstrated outside the prime minister’s residence. Aerial footage showed Tel Aviv’s main highway filled with protesters holding flags with pictures of the slain hostages.

The families of the hostages urged the general public to join more protests across Israel today “calling for an immediate deal.”

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has demanded an injunction to stop the nationwide strike today that is to pressure the Israeli government into reaching a cease-fire deal to return hostages remaining in Gaza.

In a post on X, Smotrich said he had approached Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, arguing that the “political strike” had no legal standing.

Histadrut, Israel’s biggest trade union, ordered the nationwide strike, with the action expected to last at least one day and shut down much of the country’s economy.

Smotrich said a directive has been issued that any employees who do not show up for work will not receive payment.

“We will not allow the leaders of the Histadrut to turn the country upside down and use workers as a weapon to promote their political views,” Smotrich wrote.

Aviva Siegel, 63, who was rescued in a prisoner swap last year, told NBC News last night that news of the hostages’ deaths made her “just so sad. I was broken up into pieces. I could not stop crying and shaking. … It just seems the cruelest thing that could happen.”

Her husband, Keith Siegel, 65, an American like Goldberg-Polin, remains in captivity. She spoke about how she had been looking forward to meeting Goldberg-Polin after having spent so much time with his family.

“It should not have happened,” Siegel said of the hostage deaths.

She said she is keeping hope that her husband is strong and will make it out alive, because “if I don’t, I won’t be able to survive.”

His daughter, Elan Tiv, 33, said she wishes her father could see all of the people coming out to demand the hostages be brought home.

“I want to ask the Biden administration to see that Netanyahu is not doing his job. Netanyahu is killing my dad. Netanyahu is killing the hostages,” she said. She asked Biden to “use his good power to be a leader.”

She called on Netanyahu to “let someone else do the most important mission and bring the hostages home and get this war to a finish.” 

The chair of Histadrut, Israel’s biggest trade union, has said today’s strike was needed to “shake things up” and push Israeli leadership to reach a cease-fire deal with Hamas.

“I refuse to remain indifferent to the fact that our beloved country is becoming a country that abandons its people,” Arnon Bar-David said in a speech to thousands of Israelis who gathered at a rally yesterday in Tel Aviv.  “A deal must be reached; this is the most important thing.”

In an earlier meeting, Bar-David said he believed Israel was “in a downward spiral” and that “only a strike will shake things up,” according to a news release shared online by Histadrut.

During his speech, he also warned of the impact Israel’s continued war in Gaza was having on the country’s economy as he expressed fears of a future “mass economic collapse” that “future generations” may have to pay for.

Israelis have launched the country’s first nationwide general strike since Oct. 7, amid widespread fury over the government’s failure to agree to a Gaza cease-fire deal after the bodies of six hostages were found in the enclave over the weekend.

Histadrut, Israel’s biggest trade union, ordered the nationwide strike from 6 a.m. local time, with the action expected to last at least one day and shut down much of the country’s economy.

The strike is expected to shut government offices, schools and private businesses, while flights were also briefly halted from Israel’s international airport.

The strike is expected to bring much of Israel’s economy to a grinding halt as Netanyahu faces mounting pressure to strike a deal with Hamas that would secure the release of hostages who remain held in Gaza and bring Israel’s deadly offensive in the enclave to an end.

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Tel Aviv last night, an eruption of anger over the killings of the hostages and the Israeli government’s failure to agree to a cease-fire deal with Hamas that could secure the release of the remaining captives in Gaza.

A global outpouring of grief and anger erupted after the bodies of six hostages were recovered by the Israel Defense Forces in a tunnel under the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Among them was 23-year-old American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose parents advocated for his return at last month’s Democratic National Convention. NBC News reports on the protests and growing questions over cease-fire negotiations.