'Turning point': Israelis strike and protest to demand Gaza hostage deal
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00:00We're going to talk more about the situation today in Israel with our Jerusalem correspondent
00:03Iris Mackler, who joins me now live.
00:05Iris, first of all, what's the significance of this strike and these protests?
00:10Tell us a bit more about this court decision ordering an end to the strike today.
00:14That's right.
00:15The court has ordered the strike to end half an hour ago.
00:18I just came here to see what the situation is in this street, and everything remains
00:22closed despite that court order, except the church, of course, whose doors are still open
00:27behind me.
00:28But I think people will be slowly going back to work as a result of that court order.
00:32I think the significance of the strike and of the protests is that they show us the level
00:39– something has changed for the Israeli public.
00:42We haven't seen a strike, and we haven't seen protests of this size, hundreds of thousands
00:47on the streets last night, and it was, in a sense, spontaneous, and it was a response
00:52to the news that the six hostages had been found dead.
00:56And I think what you're seeing is a turning point for the public.
01:00You know, will it be a turning point for the politicians?
01:02We have to yet see.
01:03But the public, I think, was horrified because the autopsies showed that these six were killed,
01:09executed basically, being shot in the head at close range, and also because of the notion
01:15that four of the six had the possibility – at least three of the six, but maybe even four
01:20of the six – would have been in the first phase of a negotiated hostage release and
01:26ceasefire deal.
01:27They would have been released.
01:28Now, let's just go back over those dates.
01:30A proposal was put forward in April, Israel put forward a proposal in May, it was adopted
01:35by Joe Biden and the UN Security Council, Hamas agreed to it in July, and nevertheless
01:40there is no deal.
01:43And that, and the fact that in the past two weeks, 13 hostages have been rescued.
01:49That is one rescued alive, 12 returned in body bags.
01:53And those numbers are terrifying for the Israeli public, for the relatives of the hostages.
01:57And I guess what the public is saying now to their politicians is, we want this return
02:03of hostages to be prioritised, it's important to us, and, you know, we want you, the government,
02:11to act on that.
02:12Joe Biden, the US president, said that Hamas pulled the trigger and is plainly to blame
02:18for the death of these six hostages.
02:21I guess what the Israeli public is asking is what role did its own government play?
02:25Indeed.
02:26And as you say, this could really be a turning point for the public in Israel.
02:30But what about the politicians?
02:31And crucially, what about for Benjamin Netanyahu himself?
02:34Could this be a turning point for them?
02:37We don't know the answer to that.
02:39You know, they've been holding pretty steadfast to the line, Benjamin Netanyahu's line and
02:43his right-wing allies as well, that you don't reward Hamas, who's just killed six hostages,
02:50by doing a deal with them, that kind of talk, that these actions during a time of war, these
02:57protests, this strike, it's highly unusual, it's damaging for the public, they call for
03:02it to stop.
03:03But the public is calling on them to act.
03:05And I think you're seeing that rift perhaps for the first time.
03:08It's been a long war, a long, hard war for the people of Gaza, certainly, but for the
03:13people of Israel as well.
03:14We're also seeing an escalation of the border with Lebanon in the West Bank, certainly within
03:20the last six weeks.
03:22And I guess what's being asked here is, is this government carrying out something that
03:26is strategically successful for the state of Israel?
03:30And there are many military, former military, serving military leaders, security service
03:36leaders who are beginning to question that, as well as the public.
03:41Iris, thanks so much for that.
03:42That's the France 24's Jerusalem correspondent, Iris Maclare.