Hostage families call for nationwide strike as Israel prepares to escalate war
Israeli soldiers near the border with Gaza on Wednesday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel intends to take military control of all of Gaza despite protests.
By Tal Shalev, Dana Karni, CNN
Jerusalem (CNN) — Families of Israeli hostages kept captive in Gaza are calling for a nationwide general strike next Sunday, in protest of the Israeli security cabinet’s recent decision to expand the war and take over Gaza City.
“We are shutting down the country to save the soldiers and the hostages,” said the relatives of the hostages in Tel Aviv. They were joined by the October 7 Council, which represents bereaved families of soldiers who fell at the start of the war.
Organizers said the initiative would start as a grassroots effort primarily through private companies and citizens who will strike on Sunday to halt the economy.
Within hours, the October 7 Council said “hundreds” of companies said they would participate in the strike, as well as “thousands of citizens who have declared they will take the day off.”
Israel’s largest worker union, known as the Histadrut, hasn’t yet joined the strike. The families are expected to meet with Histadrut Chairman Arnon Bar-David on Monday in a bid to convince him to join forces.
Anat Angrest, mother of Matan, who is being held hostage in Gaza, appealed to the heads of the economic and labor industries, warning that “your silence is killing our children.”
Angrest said, “I know your hearts are with us and in pain – but that is not enough. Silence kills. That is why I am here today to ask for something I have avoided until now – to ask the heads of industry: you have the power.”
The Histadrut has already staged a general strike in support of the hostages’ families last year. After the killing of six Israeli hostages by Hamas in September 2024, the union disrupted key sectors like transport, banking, healthcare, and joined widespread protests and demonstrations throughout the day. However, the Israeli government blasted their actions as political and moved to halt the strike through a labor court injunction.
While the Histadrut has not commented publicly about the strike, Israeli opposition leaders have endorsed and embraced the initiative. Leader of the opposition Yair Lapid said, “The call by the families of the hostages for a general strike is justified and appropriate.”
The chairman of the Democrats party, Yair Golan, announced the party would join the strike and called “on all Israeli citizens – anyone who holds the values of life and mutual responsibility dear – to strike with us, to take to the streets, to resist and disrupt.”
The Israeli security cabinet decided on Friday to move forward with a controversial plan to expand the war and take over Gaza City. The plan has provoked harsh criticism from the families of the remaining 50 hostages in Gaza, 20 of whom are presumed to be alive, warning that the new military move could endanger the living hostages and sentence them to death.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the escalation in a news conference on Sunday. “Contrary to false claims, this is the best way to end the war and the best way to end it speedily,” he told reporters.
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