Israel Gaza latest: General strike begins as anger over hostage deaths erupts into protest demanding ceasefire

Donald Trump loyalist Lindsey Graham went on the offense against Kamala Harris on Sunday calling her a “wrecking ball” for her stance on Israel’s war with Hamas, after it was announced that six hostages had been found dead in Gaza.

Graham appeared on ABC’s This Week on Sunday and opened up a line of attack against Harris’s foreign policy credentials – something that the Trump campaign has been trying to get off the ground this past week as it pushes back on criticism over a controversial visit to Arlington National Cemetery and a host of issues related to his running mate JD Vance.

“I would say on foreign policy, she [Harris] has been a wrecking ball,” Graham said on Sunday.

My colleague John Bowden reports from Washington DC:

Hamas' armed wing al-Qassasm brigades claimed responsibility for two attacks against Israelis in the occupied West Bank on Friday, the group said in a statement on Monday.

The strikes follow months of protests by families representing some of the hostages and underscore the deep divisions that have opened up in Israel over Netanyahu's approach to securing a ceasefire deal.

Despite pressure from his own defence minister as well as senior generals and intelligence officials, Netanyahu has insisted on maintaining Israeli troops in key points of the Gaza Strip after any ceasefire.

Hamas has rejected any Israeli presence and despite the efforts of Egyptian and Qatari diplomats and repeated visits to the region by senior US officials urging a deal, there has been no sign of a breakthrough in talks to halt the fighting and bring the hostages home.

Hamas still holds 101 hostages from the 253 seized when gunmen rampaged through Israeli communities around Gaza last October, killing 1,200 Israelis and foreigners and triggering a relentless Israeli assault that has laid waste to Gaza and killed more than 40,600 Palestinians.

Municipal services in several Israeli districts were disrupted on Monday after the country's biggest labour union launched a general strike to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into agreeing to a deal to bring Israeli hostages in Gaza home.

The head of the Histadrut union, which represents hundreds of thousands of workers across the economy, called for the strike on Sunday after the bodies of six hostages were recovered in a tunnel in southern Gaza.

The return of the hostages, who were shot dead between 48-72 hours before being found by Israeli forces, according to health ministry estimates, triggered deep shock in Israel, prompting at least half a million people to take to the streets in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in protest on Sunday.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich sought to have the strike call dismissed by Israel's Labour Court, which was due to meet mid-morning but numerous sectors were affected by the strike call, which was backed by many employer groups including manufacturers and the high tech sector.

Some services at Ben Gurion Airport, Israel's main air transport hub, were suspended, although incoming flights were still landing while bus and light rail services in many areas were either cancelled or only partially functioning.

Workers at Israel's main commercial port Haifa were also on strike.

Hospitals were only partially operating and banks were not working but many private sector businesses were open. However employers were allowing staff to join the strike so many services were disrupted.

Republican candidate Donald Trump, said on Truth Social: “The Hostage Crisis in Israel is only taking place because Comrade Kamala Harris is weak and ineffective, and has no idea what she’s doing.

“I look forward to seeing her at the Debate! Biden failed, and now he spends his day on the beach, plotting and scheming how to take out his once Political Opponent, ME, who took him out both at the Debate, and otherwise. THE OCTOBER 7th ISRAELI CRISIS WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED IF I WERE PRESIDENT!”

President Joe Biden has met with parents of Israeli-American hostage killed.

Israel on Sunday said it had recovered the bodies of six hostages in Gaza, including a young Israeli-American man who became one of the most well-known captives held by Hamas as his parents met with world leaders and pressed for his release.

The military said all six had been killed shortly before they were to be rescued by Israeli forces. Their recovery sparked calls for mass protests against prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who many families of hostages and much of the wider Israeli public blame for failing to bring them back alive in a deal with Hamas to end the 10-month-old war.

A White House Official has said: “This morning, President Biden spoke with Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin, parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, to offer his condolences for the death of their son at the hands of Hamas.”

It came as the young members of hostage families are currently leading a funeral procession through Tel Aviv, carrying symbolic coffins.

The families of the hostages are calling people throughout Israel to take to the streets and “choose to be on the right side of history”.

Palestinian militants killed three Israeli police officers on Sunday when they opened fire on a vehicle in the occupied West Bank, where Israel has carried out large-scale raids in recent days.

The attack took place along a road in the southern West Bank. The raids have mainly been focused on urban refugee camps in the northern part of the territory, where Israeli forces have traded fire with militants on a near-daily basis since the outbreak of the war in Gaza.

The police confirmed that all three killed were officers and said the assailants slipped away.

One of the officers killed was Roni Shakuri, 61, from the southern town of Sderot near the Gaza border, police said. His daughter, Mor, who was also a police officer, was killed in a battle with Hamas militants when they tried to take over the Sderot police station during the Oct. 7 attack.

A little-known militant group calling itself the Khalil al-Rahman Brigade claimed responsibility for the shooting on Sunday. Hamas praised the attack as a “natural response” to the war in Gaza and called for more.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has said told ABC News’ This Week that he is “heartbroken, devastated, mad” over the deaths of the six hostages whose bodies were recovered in Gaza on Saturday.