Israelis are called on Monday, September 2, to “a general strike” to force the government to reach an agreement to free the hostages held in Gaza, after the army discovered six dead hostages in a tunnel.
From 6am Monday (5am in France), “The entire Israeli economy will be on general strike”launched the head of the powerful Israeli trade union center, Arnon Bar-David, on Sunday, because “We must put an end to this abandonment of hostages”. “At 8 o’clock the airport will be closed, take-offs and landings will cease”the Histadrut said in a statement.
On Sunday, tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated in several cities to demand an agreement on the release of the hostages. In Tel Aviv, protesters blocked a highway.
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This mobilization comes after the announcement on Sunday, September 1, by the Israeli army of the discovery of the bodies of six hostages in the Gaza Strip, the scene of a devastating war that has pitted Israel against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas for almost eleven months.
« Les corps des hostages Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi et Ori Danino » were found on Saturday in a “tunnel in the Rafah area”in the southern Gaza Strip, the army said, sparking shock and anger in Israel.
US President Joe Biden said ” devastated “ et “indignant”while his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron expressed his “stupor” and asked “the end of the war”.
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Hostages killed “at point blank range” according to Israel, by Israeli “bombings” according to Hamas
At least four hostages were buried on Sunday, in the presence of grieving relatives.
“You were abandoned, every day, every hour, 331 days (…) you were sacrificed to “destroy Hamas”lamented Nira Seroussi in her eulogy for her son, Almog. She was referring to repeated statements by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has vowed to continue the war until the destruction of Hamas, an organization considered a terrorist by Israel, the United States and the European Union. Under increasing pressure to reach a hostage deal after months of deadlock, Mr. Netanyahu on Sunday threatened Hamas with “settle one’s score”.
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According to the Israeli Health Ministry, the autopsy carried out on the bodies of the six hostages reveals that they were killed “point blank” “between Thursday and Friday morning”But according to a Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, they were “killed by gunfire and bombing by the occupier” Israeli, some of which are part “from the list of hostages to be released that Hamas had approved”.
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In the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel that sparked war in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 251 people were kidnapped: 97 are still being held in Gaza, including 33 declared dead by the army. The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.
Polio vaccination in Gaza
Israeli retaliation has reportedly left at least 40,738 people dead in Gaza – a figure that cannot be independently verified, according to Hamas’s health ministry. The war has also caused a humanitarian and health disaster and the displacement of almost the entire 2.4 million population. The majority of the dead have been women and minors, according to the UN.
On Sunday, the centre of the besieged Palestinian territory enjoyed a few hours of respite as a major anti-polio campaign was officially launched under the auspices of “humanitarian pauses” three days each, from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. The goal is to vaccinate more than 640,000 children under the age of ten, following the first confirmed case of the disease in the Palestinian territory in 25 years. According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, 72,611 children were vaccinated on the first day of the anti-polio campaign.
Israel is also continuing its military operation launched Wednesday in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory separated from the Gaza Strip and occupied by Israel since 1967. Strong explosions were heard Sunday near the Jenin refugee camp, from which a thick cloud of smoke rose.
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At least twenty-four Palestinians, mainly “terrorists” according to the army, have been killed by Israeli troops in the West Bank since Wednesday, according to the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry.
Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, and Islamic Jihad, another armed group, said at least 14 of the dead were fighting in their ranks.
In the southern West Bank, three Israeli police officers, including a woman, were killed Sunday near a checkpoint in a “armed attack”according to Israeli police. A Palestinian suspected of being the perpetrator was shot dead by the army, it said.
