A general workers’ strike disrupted Israel on Monday as the largest Israeli trade union and businesses sought to pressure the government to reach a cease-fire deal with Hamas to end fighting in Gaza as the war nears the 11-month mark.

The massive labor protest, after tens of thousands of people demonstrated in the streets Sunday night, was the broadest expression of antigovernment dissent since the war began last October. The Monday work stoppages came a day after Israel announced that six more hostages had been found dead in a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Banks, public transit, hospitals, stores and the country’s main airport were all shuttered or open in limited ways. In some sectors, the strike’s effects were less noticeable.

The work disruption ended after eight hours, in mid-afternoon, when a court ruled that the Histadrut union had not given enough notice ahead of time for the labor protest to proceed.

Advocates for the hostages and critics of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued that a cease-fire to halt the war in Gaza could have saved the hostages’ lives. But his partners in the Israeli government’s ruling coalition mostly oppose a compromise with Hamas.

Watch related report by Linda Gradstein:

Netanyahu has refused to agree to a cease-fire calling for an Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza that would lead to a permanent halt to the fighting for fear that Hamas could rearm itself and endanger Israel’s long-term security.

Thousands of people gathered Monday at a large cemetery in Jerusalem for the funeral of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a dual Israeli American citizen who was one of the six hostages found dead. Israeli President Isaac Herzog expressed remorse in a eulogy that Israel had failed to protect Goldberg-Polin from the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel or to bring him home alive.

Arnon Bar-David, Histadrut’s chairman, said Sunday that the union could not “stand idly by” without protesting. “We cannot ignore the cries of our children who are being murdered in the tunnels in Gaza; it is inconceivable. We are in a downward spiral and keep receiving body bags.”

The hostages were apparently shot to death by the militants as troops were zeroing in on their location in Gaza. Israel’s foreign ministry said early Monday a forensic examination showed the hostages were shot at close range, and two to three days before they were examined.

Earlier Sunday, Netanyahu vowed to intensify the fight with Hamas after the Israeli military recovered the hostages’ bodies.

“Those who kill hostages do not want an agreement” for a Gaza cease-fire, Netanyahu said in a statement, telling Hamas leaders, “We will hunt you down, we will catch you and we will settle the score.”

Netanyahu also accused Hamas of carrying out a shooting attack earlier Sunday that killed three police officers near the city of Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Hamas has not claimed responsibility for the attack but called it a “heroic operation by the resistance.”

While the fighting in Gaza and the West Bank remained at the forefront, “humanitarian pauses” were started at several locations in Gaza so that the U.N. agency for Palestinians and the World Health Organization could start vaccinating 640,000 children under the age of 10 over the next several days against the threat of polio. The U.N. agency said 87,000 children were vaccinated Sunday. According to The Associated Press, the vaccination program will run through next Monday and last eight hours a day.

The disease was recently detected in Gaza for the first time in 25 years.

Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people and captured about 250 hostages during the October 7 attack on southern Israel. The Israeli counteroffensive has killed nearly 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to Gaza health officials, while the Israeli military says the death toll includes several thousand Hamas combatants.

Israel says it believes 101 Israeli and foreign hostages remain in Gaza, but about one-third of them is believed to be dead, while the fate of the others is not known.

Senior Hamas officials said that Israel, in its refusal to sign a cease-fire agreement, was to blame for the newest deaths.

“Netanyahu is responsible for the killing of Israeli prisoners,” senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters. “The Israelis should choose between Netanyahu and the deal.”

Hamas has offered to release the hostages in return for an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the release of dozens of Palestinian prisoners, including high-profile militants, jailed by Israel.

The Hostage Families Forum called on Netanyahu to explain what was holding up an agreement.

“They were all murdered in the last few days, after surviving almost 11 months of abuse, torture, and starvation in Hamas captivity. The delay in signing the deal has led to their deaths and those of many other hostages,” it said.

U.S. President Joe Biden, who has closely followed the fate of the hostages, said he was “devastated and outraged” by the discovery of more dead captives.

“Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes. And we will keep working around the clock for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages,” he said in a statement.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, said she and her husband, Doug Emhoff, spoke to Goldberg-Polin’s parents, Jon and Rachel, to express their condolences.

“My heart breaks for their pain and anguish,” Harris said. “I told them: As they mourn this terrible loss, they are not alone. Our nation mourns with them.”

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.