Israel’s largest trade union announced it will hold a one-day general strike on Monday to press the government to agree on a prisoner exchange with Hamas.
Wide sectors of the Israeli economy are expected to shut down or disrupted for the day, including public transportation and Ben-Gurion Airport. However, hospitals, pharmacies and other essential services are expected to remain open.
“A deal must be reached; a deal is more important than anything else,” said Arnon Bar-David, chairman of the Histadrut, the umbrella organization of Israeli labor and trade union. The Histadrut represents around 800,000 workers.
The recovery of the six bodies from a tunnel in Rafah has made the families of Israel’s roughly 100 captives bitterly angry with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Autopsies revealed that Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Alex Labonov, Ori Danino and Carmel Gat had been killed an estimated 48 hours before being found by soldiers.