Groups representing families of the hostages, slain soldiers, and victims of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre called Sunday for a general strike to be held August 17 to protest the continuation of the war and the government’s plan for a military takeover of Gaza City, which they fear could cost the hostages their lives and further IDF casualties.

The planned strike, which received backing from leading figures in the opposition, is being organized by the October Council, which represents families affected by Hamas’s attack.

However, it was not immediately clear if the main organization representing families, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, would back the strike, while the country’s main labor federation, the Histadrut, said that it would sit it out.

The developments came days after the cabinet voted to seize the densely populated Gaza City despite the military’s objections that the move would imperil the captives, needlessly endanger troops, and deepen the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

The strike was called for Sunday, August 17. At a press conference in Tel Aviv, held opposite the Kirya military base that houses military headquarters and the Defense Ministry, organizers urged private companies, organizations, workers’ unions, and citizens in general to take a vacation day and bring the economy to a halt.

The goal, they said, is “to save the lives of the hostages and soldiers, and prevent further families from joining the bereaved.”

“Silence kills; the time has come to bring the country to a halt,” they declared.

“We will all pause next Sunday and say: ‘Enough, stop the war, return the hostages.’ It is in our hands,” said bereaved mother Reut Recht-Edri, whose son Ido was murdered by Hamas at the Nova music festival, at the press conference in Tel Aviv.

Anat Angrest, the mother of Hamas hostage Matan Angrest, decried the decision to occupy Gaza City, in the north of the Strip, saying it will endanger those who remain in captivity.

“The government decided to occupy the Gaza Strip, to send soldiers to come closer to Matan. They are trying to bring him back, but in fact are endangering him,” she said.

She evoked the events of last September, in which six hostages were murdered in a tunnel by Hamas terrorists as IDF troops were nearing their location, and warned that the plan to conquer Gaza City approved last Thursday night will lead to a similar outcome for her son.

“The army came close to them [the six murdered hostages] as the prospect of a deal was being undermined; this is in addition to dozens of hostages that were kidnapped alive and murdered in captivity as a result of military pressure,” she said.

The call for a strike lacks the support of the powerful Histadrut labor federation, after a Tel Aviv court barred it last year from striking to pressure the government into sealing a hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza, defining the matter as political rather than related to workers’ rights.

Histadrut chairman Arnon Bar-David was to meet on Monday with families of hostages following their request that he bring his organization into the strike.

According to an unsourced report from Channel 12, the Histadrut has already notified the organizers that it will not join the strike.

Histadrut spokesperson Yaniv Levy told the Ynet outlet that “at this stage, Arnon believes that a strike can’t help the campaign and the families’ pain.”

A strike by the Histadrut, he said, would “not serve the purpose.”

Levy said that members of business forums will also attend the Monday morning meeting between Ben-David and the families of hostages.

“We will see how we can help,” he said, but stressed that “a strike is a means, not an end, when there are problems.”

“At the moment, there will be no general strike,” Levy said.

But Opposition Leader Yair Lapid expressed support of the strike, posting on X that the hostage families’ call “to shut down the economy is justified and worthy. We will continue to stand by their side.”

Likewise, Yair Golan, head of the left-wing The Democrats party, came out in favor of the strike, calling on “all citizens of Israel” to participate and arguing that it is impossible to continue with regular routines while “our brothers and sisters in Gaza” are being abandoned.

The idea for a general strike was touted on Saturday night when tens of thousands  of people attended protests across the country against taking over Gaza City and urged the government to instead reach a comprehensive ceasefire deal to end the war and secure the release of all the hostages.

Overnight Thursday-Friday, the security cabinet approved a proposal by Netanyahu to take over Gaza City, bucking warnings from the army that the operation risks the lives of the remaining hostages in addition to potentially sparking a humanitarian disaster for its residents.

Shortly before the cabinet meeting, however, Netanyahu said that Israel intends to take control of the entire Strip, then hand it over to an unspecified Arab governing force. The premier said a “detailed plan” will be developed for this post-Hamas government, and that it will not leave Israel in control of the Strip as a civil government, nor allow the Palestinian Authority to play a role.

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 abducted in the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza. They include the bodies of at least 28 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive, and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 60,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.