The Israeli Labor Court ordered an early end to the national strike following a request from the Public Prosecutor's Office, claiming that an appeal was political in nature and did not respond to a labor demand.
Educational institutions, six of the country's banks and some companies supported the general strike, which was marked by normality on the streets of cities like Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Ben Gurion International Airport in the Israeli capital halted flight departures for just two hours, before resuming them at around ten in the morning.
Relatives of hostages held by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and dozens of citizens intermittently blocked roads and junctions in protest at the lack of a ceasefire in the conflict in the Gaza Strip.
‘Nobody is satisfied with anything today,‘ a spokeswoman for the Forum of Hostages’ Families told EFE shortly after the conclusion of the nationwide paralysis, which failed to put pressure on the government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu to resolve differences with Hamas and achieve an end to hostilities.
The protests are part of the first day of the general strike called today by the Histadrut, Israel's largest trade union group, with a view to increasing pressure on the prime minister, accused by many Israelis of not doing enough in the negotiations with Hamas and bringing back the hostages alive.
Given the public outcry, Netanyahu is due to give a speech to the media today at 20:15 local time (minus two hours in Lisbon), the prime minister's office said.
The US government has renewed pressure on its side to reach an agreement and is expected to present a final ceasefire plan to Israel and Hamas in the coming weeks, according to media outlets such as the Washington Post.
If the two sides don't accept the new agreement, which would have been developed jointly with mediators from Egypt and Qatar, according to a senior US administration official speaking to the Washington Post, this could mark the end of the negotiations with the participation of the United States.
Asked about this information this morning at the White House, US President Joe Biden only commented: ‘We are close to an agreement to release the hostages, but I don't think Netanyahu is doing enough.’
At the funeral of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Israeli President Isaac Herzog again apologized for not bringing him back to Israel alive and, like the young man's father, called for the immediate return of those still held captive in the Gaza Strip.
‘Hersh, I apologize on behalf of the State of Israel for not returning you safely, for not protecting you,’ Herzog said in a speech he delivered to the participants in Hebrew and English.
The strategic Philadelphi corridor, the dividing line between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, has remained under occupation by Israeli troops since their arrival in the town of Rafah, in the south of the enclave.
Hamas is asking the Israeli government to withdraw its forces from that area, and from the entire Palestinian enclave, in order to reach an agreement.
While the talks are not progressing, the death toll in the Gaza Strip, mainly women and children, reached 40,786 today, according to local authorities, in addition to 94,224 wounded, after almost eleven months of war in which Israeli bombardments have devastated the territory.
The large-scale Israeli military offensive followed a Hamas attack in southern Israel on 7 October, which left around 1,200 dead and took more than 200 hostages in the Gaza Strip.
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