JERUSALEM – A general strike brought parts of Israel to a halt on Sept 2 in a bid to raise pressure on the Israeli government to secure the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza, after the military recovered the bodies of six captives who the Health Ministry said had been “murdered” by Hamas.

Relatives and demonstrators have accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of not doing enough to bring the hostages back alive and, during mass rallies on Sept 1, called for a truce deal to help free dozens who remain captive.

The sentiment was shared by United States President Joe Biden, who on Sept 2 was asked by a reporter at the White House if he thought the Israeli leader was doing enough on the issue and responded: “No.”

The Israeli military said on Sept 1 that the bodies of six hostages, who were all captured alive during Hamas’ Oct 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the Israel-Hamas war, had been recovered from a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip, prompting outpourings of grief and fury.

The Israeli Health Ministry said post-mortem examinations showed the six had been “murdered... with several close-range gunshots” shortly before they were found by troops.

Israel’s Histadrut trade union called for a nationwide strike beginning at 6am on Sept 2 for the return of the remaining 97 hostages, including 33 the military says are dead.

Tel Aviv and Haifa were among the cities that heeded the strike call, and announced that municipal services would be closed. Jerusalem did not take part, although light rail services were cancelled in the morning. Privately run public transportation services were at least partly functional at midday.

Haifa’s port slowed down or ceased some of its activities, Histadrut spokesman Peter Lerner said on social media platform X.

The Ben Gurion international airport near Tel Aviv saw some flights delayed, and none at all for two hours leading up to 10am.

The Tel Aviv Labour Court on Sept 2 ordered a halt to the strike, citing in a ruling seen by AFP its “politically motivated” nature.

Histadrut is authorised to call for strikes only for economic reasons and workers’ rights, but not over political issues.

The court ruling came after Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – a far-right leader who opposes a truce in the war – called on the court to move to ban the strike.

The strike followed a day of mass protests on Sept 1 that saw tens of thousands on the streets of Tel Aviv and elsewhere, part of a series of anti-government rallies that have been held during the war. On Sept 2, protesters again blocked roads in Tel Aviv.

Histadrut chief Arnon Bar-David said he wanted to “stop the abandonment of the hostages”, adding that “only our intervention can shake those who need to be shaken”, an apparent reference to top Israeli decision-makers who have opposed a truce or stalled in months of negotiations.

Protester Michal Hadas-Nahor, 34, said: “We’re stopping everything to make sure our voice is heard, to say that we don’t want to do anything until they are here.

“I really hope this makes a difference, otherwise I don’t know how I can live in this country and raise my children here.”

Mr Barak Hadurian, a 56-year-old software engineer from Tel Aviv, said “we want elections”, but “first and foremost”, he wants the government “to sign an agreement to release the hostages and cease this war that is terrible for both sides”.

Mr Gil Dickmann, a cousin of Ms Carmel Gat, one of the six hostages whose deaths were announced, said: “I really hope this is a turning point.”

Up until Sept 1, Mr Dickmann said, labour leaders and others were not yet ready to take major action like a nationwide strike.

“I guess we had to lose our most precious things for it to become time for this general strike,” he told journalists.

“It’s horrible that we had to pay the price, that Carmel is not here with us to see that.”

Out of 251 hostages seized during the Oct 7 attack, only eight have been rescued alive by Israeli forces, but scores were released during a one-week truce in November – the only one so far. Mediation efforts led by the US, Qatar and Egypt since then have repeatedly stalled.

Mr Biden was due on Sept 2 to meet his negotiating team to discuss efforts to drive towards a deal that secures the release of the remaining hostages following “the murder” in captivity of the six, including American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, the White House said. Other than Ms Gat and Mr Goldberg-Polin, Israel named the four other victims as Ms Eden Yerushalmi, Mr Almog Sarusi, Mr Ori Danino and Russian-Israeli Alexander Lobanov.

On the ground in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, civil defence rescuers said an Israeli strike on Sept 1 killed 11 people at a school where Israel’s military said a Hamas command centre was based.

The fighting continued on Sept 2, coinciding with the second day of localised “humanitarian pauses” to facilitate a vaccination drive after the first confirmed polio case in Gaza in 25 years.

An AFP correspondent reported some air strikes overnight, and the civil defence agency said artillery shelling and gunfire rocked Gaza City, where two people were killed when a missile hit a residential block.

Ms Louise Wateridge, spokeswoman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), said 87,000 children received a first dose of the polio vaccine on Sept 1 in central Gaza.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini called the inoculation campaign a “race against time to reach just over 600,000 children” in the war-torn territory of 2.4 million people.

“For this to work, parties to the conflict must respect the temporary area pauses,” he said.

The Israeli military campaign against Hamas has so far killed at least 40,738 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children. The Oct 7 attack that triggered it resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians and including hostages killed in captivity, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. AFP