Israelis erupt in protests demanding ceasefire after…

JERUSALEM (AP) — Grieving and angry Israelis took to the streets Sunday night after six more hostages were found dead in Gaza, chanting “Now! Now!” as they demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reach a cease-fire with Hamas to bring the remaining captives home.

Israel’s largest trade union, the Histadrut, has put pressure on the government by calling for a general strike on Monday, the first since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war. The strike is intended to shut down or disrupt major sectors of the economy, including banks, health care and the country’s main airport.

Tens of thousands of Israelis protested in one of the largest demonstrations since the war began nearly 11 months ago. Negotiations for a ceasefire have dragged on for months and many blame Netanyahu for failing to reach a deal. The Israeli military has acknowledged the difficulty of rescuing the dozens of remaining hostages and has said only a deal can allow for a large-scale return.

Thousands of people, some in tears, gathered outside Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem. In Tel Aviv, relatives of hostages marched with coffins to symbolize the death toll.

“We truly believe that the government is making these decisions for its own preservation and not for the lives of the hostages, and we must tell them: Enough!” said Tel Aviv resident Shlomit Hacohen.

Three of the six hostages found dead, including an Israeli-American, were reportedly due to be released in the first phase of a ceasefire proposal discussed in July, adding to the sense of anger and frustration among protesters.

“There is nothing worse than knowing that he could have been saved,” said Dana Loutaly. “Sometimes it takes something so terrible to shake people out and get them out on the streets.”

The military said the six hostages were killed shortly before Israeli forces arrived. Netanyahu blamed the Hamas militant group for the deadlock in negotiations, saying “whoever kills hostages does not want a deal.”

One of the hostages was Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, from Berkeley, California, who lost part of his left arm to a grenade in the attack. In April, a video released by Hamas showed him alive, sparking fresh protests in Israel.

The army identified the others as Ori Danino, 25; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Almog Sarusi, 27; Alexander Lobanov, 33; and Carmel Gat, 40.

The army said the bodies were recovered from a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, about a kilometre from where another hostage was rescued alive last week.

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said Israeli forces found the bodies several dozen meters underground while “fighting was ongoing,” but there was no gunfire in the tunnel. He added there was no doubt Hamas had killed them.

Hamas has offered to release the hostages in exchange for an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including high-profile militants.

Izzat al-Rishq, a senior Hamas official, said the hostages would still be alive if Israel had accepted the U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal that Hamas said it accepted in July.

The funeral began with more outrage. Sarusi’s body was draped in an Israeli flag. “They abandoned you again and again, every day, hour after hour, 331 days,” said her mother, Nira. “You and so many beautiful, pure souls. Enough is enough. No more.”

Relatives of hostages call for “total paralysis of the country”

Netanyahu has vowed to continue the fight until Hamas is destroyed. Some Israelis support that promise, as society remains deeply divided over the war.

But critics have accused the prime minister of putting his personal interests ahead of those of the hostages. The end of the war will likely lead to an inquiry into his government’s failures in the October 7 attacks, the collapse of the government and the snap election.

“I think this is an earthquake. It’s not just another step in the war,” said Nomi Bar-Yaacov, a research associate at the Chatham House International Security Programme, shortly before Sunday’s protests began.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Netanyahu got into a shouting match at a security Cabinet meeting on Thursday with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who accused him of prioritizing control of a strategic corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border — a major sticking point in the talks — over the lives of the hostages.

An Israeli official confirmed the report, saying three of the hostages — Goldberg-Polin, Yerushalmi and Gat — were to be released in the first phase of a ceasefire proposal discussed in July. The official was not authorized to brief the media on the negotiations and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“On behalf of the State of Israel, I hold their families close to my heart and ask for forgiveness,” Gallant said Sunday.

A forum of hostage families has demanded a “complete shutdown of the country” to push for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages.

Even a mass outpouring of anger would not immediately threaten Netanyahu or his far-right government. Netanyahu still controls a majority in parliament, but he has bowed to public pressure in the past. Mass protests led him to cancel the dismissal of his defense minister last year, and a general strike last year helped delay his controversial judicial reform.

A high-profile campaign by a family

Goldberg-Polin’s parents, American-born immigrants who came to Israel, became the most high-profile hostage relatives on the international stage. They met with U.S. President Joe Biden and Pope Francis and on Aug. 21 spoke at the Democratic National Convention, to cheers and chants of “bring him home.”

His mother, Rachel, said during the speech: “Hersh, if you can hear us, we love you, stay strong, survive.”

Biden said Sunday he was “devastated and outraged.” The White House said it spoke to Goldberg-Polin’s parents and offered condolences.

About 250 hostages were taken on October 7. Israel believes 101 are still in captivity, including 35 believed to be dead. More than 100 were released during a ceasefire in November in exchange for the release of Palestinians jailed by Israel. Eight have been rescued by Israeli forces. Israeli troops mistakenly killed three Israelis who escaped captivity in December.

Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, when they stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7. Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who did not say how many were militants.

On Sunday, an Israeli strike hit a car on a road in southern Gaza, killing four Palestinians, according to officials at Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and an AP journalist who counted the bodies.

The war has displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, often multiple times, and plunged the besieged territory into humanitarian catastrophe.

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Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Samy Magdy in Cairo, Danica Kirka in London and Darlene Superville in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war