U.S. Demonstrations and Criticism: Netanyahu Faces Scrutiny Following the Demise of Six Hamas Prisoners
Apologies for the unfortunate turn of events, Netanyahu mentioned during a live press conference on Monday, referring to the six deceased hostages. "We came close, but we fell short," he admitted.
Hamas is set to face severe repercussions for executing the hostages at point-blank range, Netanyahu warned. Instead of leniency, he advocated for intensifying the pressure on Hamas. Emphatically, he declared, "Nobody is more determined to bring back our hostages than I am. No one can educate me about this."
Netanyahu underscored the importance of maintaining Israel's control over the border area between Gaza and Egypt to prevent the remaining hostages from being smuggled out. This is a key consideration in the ongoing negotiations that aim not just for a ceasefire within Palestinian territories but also for the release of all surviving hostages.
The controversial withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor is a major stumbling block in the peace talks, which aim for a cessation of hostilities in the Palestinian territories and the liberation of all captives in Gaza.
On Saturday, the bodies of the six slain hostages were discovered in a tunnel in Rafah, Gaza's southern region. According to Israel's health ministry, they were gunned down by Hamas militants in point-blank range approximately 48 to 72 hours before their autopsies were conducted on Sunday.
Massive rallies demanding the release of the remaining hostages took place on Sunday evening. The Histadrut, Israel's largest labor union, gave a call for a nationwide strike from Monday morning, affecting administrative, hospital, and public transportation employees across the country. Businesses, restaurants, markets, and schools were ordered to shut down. The Histadrut chairman, Arnon Bar David, justified this, asserting, "We cannot abandon our hostages."
The coastal cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa adhered to the strike call, but Jerusalem did not participate. All flights out of Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv were halted for two hours in the morning. After the airport resumed operations, a spokesperson confirmed.
Transport services resumed partial operations, and the level of adherence to the strike varied among government offices.
Just a few hours into the strike, a labor court in Tel Aviv issued an order to halt the strike, viewing it as a "political strike." Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich had obtained the court order, arguing that the strike held no consequence for wage disputes and was therefore unlawful.
Protests blocked major roads in Tel Aviv even after the strike was called off, and thousands again gathered in Tel Aviv on Monday night, as they did the previous evening.
The funeral of 23-year-old American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the six deceased hostages, transformed into a protest gathering. Before the attendees, Israeli President Isaac Herzog expressed regret on behalf of the government. "I apologize on behalf of the State of Israel for not having kept you safe from the terrible disaster of October 7 and for not having brought you back home safely," he said to the mourners in Jerusalem.
Nearly nine months have passed since the Hamas mass attack on Israel on October 7, and 97 hostages remain in Hamas and other militant Palestinian groups' custody, among whom 33 are believed dead.
The German Foreign Office, which estimates that a small double-digit number of individuals with German ties remain among the hostages, condemned the killing of the six hostages discovered on Monday night as "almost unbearable." All remaining hostages must be freed, and a humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip must be achieved, the statement continued, calling an end to the deaths in the Gaza Strip.
US President Biden responded to the question of whether Netanyahu was making sufficient efforts towards such an agreement, stating "No," during his Washington address on Monday. The USA, together with Egypt and Qatar, have been striving for an agreement between Israel and the Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas for months.
Meanwhile, the British government declared it would suspend 30 of the 350 export licenses for arms deliveries to Israel, citing a "serious violation of international humanitarian law" as the reason. Foreign Secretary David Lammy made this announcement.
In response to the discovery of the six hostages' bodies in Rafah, massive protests and a nationwide strike were initiated in Israel, demanding their release.
The bodies of the hostages were found in a tunnel in Rafah, underscoring the importance of maintaining control over the border area to prevent further hostage incidents.
