Israel will continue to occupy the southern Gazan border region as the price for a ceasefire deal, its prime minister said.
Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, local time, rejected calls to soften his refusal to withdraw troops from the Philadelphi corridor, saying it was vital for Israel to control a key lifeline for Hamas.
The issue of the corridor, on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip bordering Egypt, has been a major sticking point in efforts to secure a deal to halt the fighting in Gaza and return Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Hamas has rejected any Israeli presence, while Netanyahu has insisted that Israel will not abandon the corridor, where Israeli troops have uncovered dozens of tunnels they say have been used to smuggle weapons and ammunition into Gaza.
"The axis of evil needs the Philadelphi corridor, and for that reason we must control the Philadelphi corridor," he told a news conference in Jerusalem.
"Hamas insists for that reason that we not be there, and for that reason, I insist that we be there," he said.
If Israel were to pull out of the corridor, international pressure would make it difficult to return, he said.
General strike after six hostages killed
Israel's main trade union launched a general strike on Monday morning, promising to shut down the country's economy in protest of the Netanyahu government's failure to secure a ceasefire deal in Gaza.
The strike disrupted transport and other services in parts of the country before a court declared the action illegal on the basis it was motivated by political considerations, rather than industrial relations.
The strike, a rare occurrence in Israel, was called after the deaths of six hostages held by Hamas triggered mass protests across the country over the weekend. But the union's directive was simply ignored in some areas, reflecting deep political divisions among Israeli citizens over the government's handling of the war in Gaza.
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis poured into the streets late on Sunday to express their grief and anger after six hostages were found dead in Gaza.
The hostages had been shot at close range between 48 and 72 hours before they were reached by Israeli forces, according to Israeli health ministry estimates.
The families and much of the public blame Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the deaths, believing the hostages could have been returned alive in a deal with Hamas to end the nearly 11-month-old war.
Three of the hostages, including 23-year-old Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, were reportedly scheduled to be released in the first phase of a ceasefire proposal that was discussed in July.
Other Israelis, however, support Mr Netanyahu's strategy of maintaining relentless military pressure on Hamas, whose October 7 terror attack on southern Israel triggered Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip.
They say Mr Netanyahu's strategy will eventually force the militants to give in to Israeli demands, potentially lead to more successful rescues and ultimately annihilate the group.
Strike sees flights and buses disrupted, but some cities unaffected
Israel's Histadrut trade union, which represents hundreds of thousands of workers across the economy, called the general strike for Monday, aiming to shut down or disrupt major sectors of the economy including banking, health care and the country's main airport in protest of the government's actions.
Some services at Ben Gurion Airport were indeed suspended on Monday morning, with outgoing flights halted between 8am and 10am — although incoming flights were still landing during that period.
Banks, some large malls and government offices were all closed due to the strike, however, and public transit was limited.
Municipalities in Israel's populated central area, including Tel Aviv, saw shortened school hours and cancellations for public daycare centres and kindergartens, while workers at Israel's main commercial port, Haifa, also took part in the action.
Workers in many other municipalities, however, did not participate in the strike, including in Jerusalem.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich appealed to Israel's Labour Court to cancel the strike on the grounds it was politically motivated, and the court quickly ruled in the government's favour, declaring the strike must end by 2:30pm local time.
Mr Netanyahu wasted no time in attacking the union leader who led the strike action, Histadrut federation chairman Arnon Bar David, at a cabinet meeting shortly after the ruling, saying the attempt to shut down the economy amounted to telling Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar that "after you murdered six hostages, we support you".
Netanyahu's Gaza strategy under scrutiny
Monday's strike followed months of protests by the families of some of the hostages, who object to Mr Netanyahu's approach to the war in Gaza and negotiations to secure a ceasefire deal that would lead to their release.
That view was echoed on Monday by US President Joe Biden, who simply answered "No" when asked by reporters at the White House whether Mr Netanyahu was doing enough to secure a ceasefire deal.
Asked whether he was planning to present a final hostage deal to both sides of the conflict this week, Mr Biden said: "We're very close to that."
"Hope springs eternal," he added, when asked whether any deal would be successful.
Mr Netanyahu has insisted on keeping Israeli troops in key points of the Gaza Strip after any ceasefire, despite pressure from his own defence minister, as well as senior generals and intelligence officials, to abandon those conditions for a deal.
Hamas has rejected any Israeli presence in the enclave, 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.
The militant group still holds 101 hostages from the 253 seized when gunmen attacked Israeli communities around Gaza last October, killing about 1,200 Israelis and foreigners and triggering a relentless IDF assault in response that has laid waste to Gaza and killed more than 40,700 Palestinians, according to Palestinian authorities.
The war has displaced the vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million people, often multiple times, and plunged the besieged territory into a humanitarian catastrophe.
Israeli forces killed at least 48 Palestinians across Gaza in the past 24 hours, Palestinian officials said on Monday, and an emergency vaccination campaign is now underway due to the re-emergence of polio in the region.
Meanwhile, violence has flared up in the occupied West Bank over the past week, with about two-dozen Palestinians killed in Israeli incursions since last Tuesday, and Hamas claiming responsibility for two car bomb attacks on Friday that injured three Israeli soldiers.
ABC/Wires
