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Israeli union goes on strike as Netanyahu faces rage over Hamas killing of hostages without cease-fire deal
There were widespread disruptions across Israel on Monday as members of the country’s largest labor union went on strike to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a deal to bring home the remaining hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
The leader of the Histadrut union, which has hundreds of thousands of members in Israel, called for the strike on Sunday after news broke of the recovery of the bodies of six hostages who had previously been known to be alive, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
The Israel Defense Forces said all six were killed a short time before their bodies were found by Israeli troops inside a tunnel in Gaza.
Ronen Zvulun / REUTERS
“My message to Prime Minister Netanyahu is that my brother Keith and all the remaining hostages need to be home immediately,” Israeli-American Lee Seigel, whose brother Keith is among the roughly 75 hostages still believed to be held alive in Gaza, told CBS News at a protest on Sunday that drew hundreds of thousands of Israelis onto the streets.
Seigel said a deal was needed immediately for “those who are alive, to start rebuilding, as the country needs to rebuild, and those who are deceased, for a proper burial. Eleven months, almost 11 months of war is too much, too long,” he said.
While many private sector businesses were open as usual on Monday, municipal services as well as services at Israel’s main air transport hub, Ben Gurion Airport, were at least partially disrupted. Banks were closed and hospitals were only partially operating, the Reuters news agency reported.
Israel’s labor court ruled that the general strike would need to end by 2:30 p.m. local time on Monday, and the ruling was accepted by the union.
The nationwide strike came after months of regular protests led by the families of the hostages over Netanyahu’s handling of negotiations aimed at securing a cease-fire and hostage release agreement.
As negotiations have taken place between Israel and Hamas through mediators including Qatar, Egypt and the United States, one of the biggest recent sticking points has been whether Israel would agree to pull back its troops from the border area between Gaza and Egypt known as the Philadelphi Corridor after any deal.
“The country needs quiet. The region needs quiet,” Seigel told CBS News. “Politics are driving the speech, the [cease-fire] non-negotiations negotiations, and are driving an extreme government in attempts to hold on to their power.”
Seigel said the killing of the six additional hostages meant President Biden should rethink the way the U.S. supports the Israeli government.
The war “serves political interests that do not jibe with the needs of our country, nor the region, nor Gaza,” Seigel said. “President Biden… we know you will not give up. But not giving up at this point means doing whatever is necessary. The United States can leverage many different interests, issues within Israel, within the region… They need to make some very, very hard decisions now that we have crossed a red line, where everything is available in the arsenal of the United States government to bring a cease-fire, to bring quiet and return hostages.”
The Hostages Families Forum via AP
The six hostages whose bodies were recovered were Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Master Sgt. Ori Danino. The Israeli Ministry of Health said that autopsies showed they had each been shot at close range on Thursday or Friday.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s family confirmed his death in a statement released early Sunday, thanking supporters and asking for privacy. His funeral was schedule to take place on Monday, and thousands lined the funeral procession route to pay their respects.
President Biden, who spoke to the Goldberg-Polin family, said he was “devastated and outraged” by Goldberg-Polin’s killing.
“Hersh was among the innocents brutally attacked while attending a music festival for peace in Israel on October 7. He lost his arm helping friends and strangers during Hamas’ savage massacre,” Mr. Biden said.
Netanyahu blamed Hamas for the stalled cease-fire negotiations, saying “whoever murders hostages doesn’t want a deal.”
Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were scheduled to meet with the team representing the U.S. in the hostage deal negotiations at the White House later on Monday.
contributed to this report.
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Paul Whelan, freed in prisoner swap with Russia, tells other American detainees: “We’re coming for you”
Washington — Nearly seven weeks after the Russians handed over Paul Whelan on a tarmac in Ankara, Turkey, the Marine veteran stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol with a message for other Americans who are held abroad.
“We’re coming for you,” he told reporters Tuesday night after he met with lawmakers. “It might take time, but we’re coming.”
Whelan said he spoke with lawmakers about how the government can better support detainees after they’re released.
“We spoke about how the next person’s experience could be better,” he said. “What the government could do for the next person that’s held hostage and comes home — the care and support that other people might need, especially people that are in a worse situation. There are people coming back that lived in the dirt without shoes for three years, people that were locked up in hideous conditions for 20 years. They need support.”
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The U.S. secured Whelan’s release in August in one of the largest prisoner swaps since the end of the Cold War. The complex deal came after months of sensitive negotiations between the U.S., Russia, Germany, Slovenia, Poland and Norway.
As part of the deal, Russia released 16 prisoners while the Western countries released eight Russians. Whelan was released alongside Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Russian-American radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a U.S. green card holder and Kremlin critic.
Whelan, who had been the longest-held American detainee in Russia, was arrested in December 2018 when he traveled to the country to attend a friend’s wedding. He was convicted of espionage in a secret trial and sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.
Whelan, his family and the U.S. government vehemently denied that he was a spy and accused Russia of using him as a political pawn. The U.S. government considered him to be wrongfully detained, a rare designation that put more government resources toward securing his release.
But a deal to secure his freedom was long elusive. He remained behind bars as Russia freed Marine veteran Trevor Reed and women’s basketball star Brittney Griner — both of whom were detained after Whelan’s arrest — in prisoner swaps with the U.S.
The U.S. said it pushed for his inclusion in both exchanges, but Russia refused. It led to Whelan advocating for his own release from a remote prison camp, calling government officials and journalists to make sure that he wasn’t forgotten.
When the plane carrying Whelan, Gershkovish and Kurmasheva landed in Maryland on Aug. 1, Whelan was the first to disembark. He was greeted by President Biden, who gave Whelan his American flag pin, and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Whether he likes it or not, he changed the world,” Rep. Haley Stevens, a Michigan Democrat, told reporters Tuesday.
Whelan’s case and his family’s constant pressure on the U.S. government brought more attention to the cases of Americans who are wrongfully detained by foreign governments.
Haley said Whelan is a reminder to other Americans considering traveling to Russia that “you have a target on your back.”
Whelan said it’s been an adjustment acclimating to life back in the U.S., especially learning the latest technology like his iPhone 15.
“I was in a really remote part of Russia,” he said. “We really didn’t have much. The conditions were poor. The Russians said the poor conditions were part of the punishment. And coming back to see this sort of thing now is a bit of a shock, but it’s a good shock.”