Israelis are called to “a general strike” Monday, September 2, to force the government to reach an agreement to release the hostages held in Gaza, after the army discovered six dead hostages in a tunnel. From 6 a.m., “The entire Israeli economy will be on general strike”the head of the Israeli trade union center said on Sunday. Histadrut, Arnon Bar-David. “At 8 o’clock the airport will be closed, take-offs and landings will cease”the union organization said in a statement. Follow our live coverage.
Tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrate. They gathered Sunday in several cities across the country to demand an agreement on the release of the hostages. In Tel Aviv, protesters blocked a highway. The autopsy carried out Sunday morning on the bodies of the hostages found in Gaza confirms that they were killed “point blank” “between Thursday and Friday morning”the Israeli Health Ministry announced.
Israel continues its military operation in the West Bank. The army launched a military operation on Wednesday in this Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967. Loud explosions were heard Sunday near the Jenin refugee camp, from which a thick cloud of smoke rose. In the southern West Bank, three Israeli police officers were killed Sunday near a checkpoint in a “armed attack”according to Israeli police. A Palestinian suspected of being the perpetrator was shot dead by the army, it added.
The anti-polio campaign has begun in the Gaza Strip. A major anti-polio campaign was officially launched on Sunday with “humanitarian pauses” lasting three days each, from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. The operation aims to vaccinate more than 640,000 children under the age of ten, following the first confirmed case of the disease in the Palestinian territory in twenty-five years. According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, 72,611 children were vaccinated on the first day of the anti-polio campaign.