The families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza are calling on businesses to go on strike and join nationwide rallies to be held on Sunday in an effort to compel the government to reach an agreement with Hamas for an immediate cease-fire and the release of the remaining captives.
The planned rallies come as Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has vowed to press into two of the last areas of Gaza that the Israeli military does not control. Israeli authorities believe that roughly 20 of the remaining captives have survived. Relatives of those hostages who remain in Gaza fear that an expanded military assault could imperil them further.
“We are asking for the people of Israel to halt on Sunday, not to go to work, not to go about their routines, and to take to the streets,” said Viki Cohen, whose son Nimrod, a soldier, is being held in Gaza, in a television interview earlier this week.
Some businesses and universities around the country, including the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, have announced they are backing the strike, which is scheduled to start around 7 a.m. Sunday. It was unclear how many Israelis would join the work stoppage.
Nearly two years of rallies in Israel have done little to push Mr. Netanyahu to compromise on his conditions for an agreement with Hamas. The militant group has said it will not free all the hostages unless Israel ends the war. Mr. Netanyahu says he cannot countenance doing so as long as Hamas remains in power.
Hamas, for its part, has refused to surrender as Palestinians in Gaza have endured more than 22 months of hunger, fear and bombardment. More than 60,000 people have been killed in the Israel’s military campaign in the enclave, including thousands of children, according to Gaza health officials. Those figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people and saw about 250 taken back to the enclave as hostages.
Israel’s largest labor federation, known as the Histadrut, has declined to join the work stoppage.
“Unfortunately, and although my heart is bursting with anger, it has no practical outcome,” Arnon Bar-David, the Histadrut’s leader, said in a statement this past week.
Last September, Mr. Bar-David’s union joined a similar strike after Israeli soldiers found the bodies of six hostages — believed to have been executed by their captors — in a tunnel in southern Gaza. The work stoppage ended without having swayed Mr. Netanyahu and his government to reach a hostage deal with Hamas.
Aaron Boxerman is a Times reporter covering Israel and Gaza. He is based in Jerusalem.
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