Gaza/Tel Aviv   -  Hundreds of Israelis joined the families of hostages held in Gaza in a protest outside the government’s cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday.  Demonstrators waved flags and pictures of the remaining hostages in Gaza, demanding a deal to bring them home immediately.

Eden Kramer, who attended the rally with a toddler in a stroller, said she’s also demonstrating for the child’s future. “We hope a big change will come. We hope everyone will come out today to bring a message to the government: We can’t keep up like this anymore,” she said.

Some protesters said the government is partly to blame for the deaths of six hostages whose bodies were recovered from Gaza this week. The Israeli military says Hamas killed the hostages.  Also, a major Israeli labour union has called for a nationwide general strike on Monday after the bodies of six hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip were recovered. “We are getting body bags instead of a deal,” said Arnon Bar-David, chairman of the Histadrut, which represents around 800,000 members.  He called on workers to stage a one-day walkout from 06:00 local time on Monday, adding that Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport will be closed from 08:00.

Israel’s military announced Sunday the discovery of six dead hostages in a Gaza tunnel, as medics in Palestinian territory braced for pauses in fighting for a polio vaccination drive. The hostages’ remains were recovered Saturday “from an underground tunnel in the Rafah area” and formally identified in Israel, a military statement said.

The military named them as Hersh Goldberg-Polin -- a dual US-Israeli national -- Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov -- a Russian-Israeli -- Almog Sarusi and Master Sergeant Ori Danino. US President Joe Biden said he was “devastated and outraged” by the deaths.

The six were among 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the ongoing war, 97 of whom remain captive in Gaza including 33 the Israeli army says are dead.

Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said all six “were abducted alive on the morning of October 7” and “brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them”.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said it “bows its head in mourning” for the latest deaths and called for a ceasefire deal.

“Were it not for the delays, sabotage, and excuses those whose deaths we learned about this morning would likely still be alive,” the campaign group said.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign since October 7 has reduced Gaza to ruins, devastating water and sanitation facilities, while disease has spread. Following the first confirmed polio case in the besieged Palestinian territory in 25 years, a Gaza health official said vaccinations began Saturday ahead of a wider campaign. The World Health Organization says Israel has agreed to a series of three-day “humanitarian pauses” to facilitate the polio vaccination drive, which an international aid worker told AFP would start in earnest Sunday.