News - Middle East: Hundreds of thousands of protesters have flooded the streets of Tel Aviv and the occupied city of al-Quds to demand a deal to secure the release of Israeli captives held in Gaza.

On Sunday night, the protesters set off flares on major roads and blocked a main highway in Tel Aviv while chanting slogans.

They called on the regime’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to reach a cease-fire deal with the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas after the Israeli military found the bodies of six captives held in the besieged Palestinian territory.

The demonstration was the biggest anti-Netanyahu protest since the onset of the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Israeli troops clashed with protesters, using violent force to disperse them. A large number of protesters were also arrested.

In a statement, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents the families of captives held in Gaza, said the death of the six hostages was the direct result of Netanyahu’s failure to secure a deal to halt the fighting and bring their loved ones home.

“They were all murdered in the last few days, after surviving (for) almost 11 months,” the forum said. 

Israel’s largest trade union has called a general strike on Monday to further pressure the regime’s cabinet for a prisoner swap deal.

The strike is expected to disrupt major sectors of the economy, including banking, healthcare and Israel’s main airport.

In a statement released on Sunday, Arnon Bar-David, the head of Israel’s Histadrut union ordered a "complete strike" in support of captives.

He called on all workers to join the strike and said main Ben Gurion airport would be closed from Monday morning.

This would be the first general strike since Israel launched its campaign of death and destruction in the Gaza Strip in early October last year.

A general strike last year during Netanyahu's controversial judicial overhaul helped lead to a temporary delay in the plan.

More than 100 Israeli and foreign captives are still in Gaza. Around a third of them, however, are known to have died in the regime's strikes, with the fate of others still unknown.

Earlier on Sunday, the Israeli military announced it had recovered the bodies of six captives from a tunnel in Gaza, sparking anger among Israelis against Netanyahu’s regime.

Many Israelis blame Netanyahu for failing to bring them back alive in a deal with the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas to end the aggression.

Negotiations over such a deal have dragged on for several months.

Netanyahu has taken a tough line in Gaza ceasefire negotiations and repeatedly said that military pressure is needed to bring home the captives.

The US-Israeli genocide in Gaza continues with no end in sight as the regime presses ahead with its air and artillery strikes across the besieged strip.

The Israeli aggression against Gaza began last October.

Since then, nearly 40,700 people have been killed and over 94,000 others injured.

 Hunger, malnutrition and lack of medical supplies are also taking a heavy toll on Gaza.

Source: Press TV