LEILA FADEL, HOST:
We go to Israel, where a nationwide general strike is underway, crippling much of the country. And last night, protests broke out in several Israeli cities in one of the largest anti-war demonstrations to date.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is all part of a nationwide outpouring of grief and frustration after the bodies of six hostages were recovered from Gaza over the weekend.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in non-English language).
MARTIN: They demanded an end to the war and a deal to bring remaining hostages home. Official autopsies by Israel showed that all six had been shot in recent days, that according to a statement from the Israeli Ministry of Health.
FADEL: For more, we're joined by NPR's Kat Lonsdorf in Tel Aviv. Good morning, Kat.
KAT LONSDORF, BYLINE: Hey, Leila.
FADEL: So let's start with this general strike today. How is that playing out?
LONSDORF: Yeah. So a lot of things are closed - many schools, government buildings, the airport even closed for a few hours this morning, and a lot of private businesses have closed in solidarity as well. It's pretty quiet in my neighborhood, for example. The nation's largest labor union here said that, quote, "only a strike will shock" and went on to call for a cease-fire deal immediately. This is the first time this has happened since the war began last October. But I should also say not all areas of Israel are abiding by the strike. You know, that's showing the deep divisions that are present in this country right now.
FADEL: I was looking at these incredible images of just people as far as you could see...
LONSDORF: Yeah.
FADEL: ...In these protests in Tel Aviv. You were there. What were you seeing and hearing?
LONSDORF: Yeah. So like you said, the streets in downtown Tel Aviv were packed with people stretching for blocks and blocks. They were shutting down intersections. People were climbing on top of bus stops. And, you know, they were waving Israeli flags, chanting to bring the remaining hostages home, holding signs calling for an end to the war and other signs calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a murderer and a criminal.
Like you said, the autopsies showed that these six hostages were all killed just days ago. And many people think that if Netanyahu had agreed to a cease-fire deal earlier, they would still be alive. People are really, really angry. Here's Tel Aviv resident Ori Elman. He calls Netanyahu by his nickname, Bibi.
ORI ELMAN: Bibi needs to decide that he wants to sign the deal. Bibi is the prime minister. He holds the key for the deal. He can keep on putting more and more obstacles and demands, but that's not relevant.
LONSDORF: Every single person I talked to last night blamed the death of these hostages on Netanyahu, saying that they believed he was the one obstructing the cease-fire deal.
FADEL: So where do things stand with that deal that people are calling for?
LONSDORF: It's really hard to know exactly. There are negotiating teams still working through the technical parts of a possible deal. But even just yesterday, Netanyahu dug in, saying that he won't give up Israeli military control of a strip of land between Egypt and Gaza called the Philadelphi Corridor. He said that this is vital to his goal of eliminating Hamas and the militant group's access to the smuggling tunnels there. This has been one of the main sticking points in the deal, and Netanyahu is not budging. Meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza in the past few weeks as the cease-fire deal has been in negotiations. So the war is still very much continuing there.
FADEL: Yeah. And it's about to enter its 12th month. Tens of thousands of people...
LONSDORF: Yeah.
FADEL: ...Killed, mostly women and children, according to health officials there over that time - what is the situation today?
LONSDORF: Well, over the weekend, Israel and Hamas agreed to a very limited pause in fighting in certain areas of Gaza as U.N. officials - U.N. health workers began a very ambitious and challenging vaccination campaign against polio. They were able to vaccinate more than 72,000 children yesterday, according to health officials there, which is good, but it's well below the 600,000 goal that they have for this three-day campaign.
FADEL: That's NPR's Kat Lonsdorf in Tel Aviv. Thanks, Kat.
LONSDORF: Thanks, Leila. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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