Israeli police say they have arrested 29 people during mass protests in Tel Aviv, accusing them of vandalism, disorderly conduct and attacking officers.
A policewoman was injured during a confrontation with demonstrators and lost consciousness before she was evacuated for medical treatment, police said in a statement without providing details, CNN reported.
Authorities also accused some protesters of breaching security perimeters and forcing their way onto the Ayalon Highway where they blocked several lanes and lit fires.
All traffic routes have been cleared of demonstrators and the roads are gradually reopening to cars, police said.
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has asked the country’s attorney general to request urgent injunctions to prevent a planned nationwide strike on Monday.
In a letter addressed to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, Smotrich argued that a strike would hurt the economy during wartime and set a dangerous precedent. The attorney general’s office has not yet commented on the request.
Earlier, Smotrich said he instructed the finance ministry’s salary department to pass on a directive that anyone who joins the strike on Monday will not be paid.
The nationwide general strike was called on by Arnon Bar-David — the leader of Israel’s largest labor union, known as the Histadrut — to pressure the government to secure the return of hostages in Gaza.
Smotrich said such a strike lacks any legal basis, arguing that it is political and intended to “improperly” influence policy decisions related to state security.
“These issues are at the core of the authority of the political establishment and they are not the subject of a strike by trade unions and there is no connection between them and labor relations in Israel,” Smotrich claimed in the letter to the attorney general.
Bar-David has vowed “the entire Israeli economy will shut down” at 6 a.m. local time Monday (11 p.m. ET on Sunday).
“We are in a downward spiral, and we don’t stop receiving body bags,” the labor leader said at a news conference earlier Sunday. Bar-David argued that political considerations have hindered progress on a hostage deal, and “only a strike would shock.”
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant on Sunday about the recovery of six hostages’ bodies in Gaza, according to the Pentagon.
Austin passed along his deepest condolences to the families of all slain hostages, and he expressed “outrage at their vicious, illegal, and immoral execution at the hand of Hamas,” according to a Pentagon readout.
Austin also sent his condolences to the three Israeli police officers killed in an attack in the occupied West Bank on Sunday morning, the readout said.
Austin expressed concern over rising tensions in the territory, where Israel just carried out a multi-day military operation that left at least 15 people dead and infrastructure destroyed in some of the West Bank’s most populace areas. There has also been a surge in Israeli settler violence across the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.
