Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu says he begs "for forgiveness" for not being able to bring home alive the six hostages whose bodies were found in Gaza on Saturday
As he delivered his remarks, protests continued across Israel - including outside the PM's residence - aimed at forcing the government to secure a hostage release deal with Hamas
Meanwhile, the UK has announced it is suspending some export licences for military equipment to Israel
Foreign Secretary David Lammy says there is a "clear risk" that items exported to Israel might be used in "serious violations of international humanitarian law"
Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant says he is "deeply disheartened" by the decision, while Foreign Minister Israel Katz says it sends a "problematic" message to Hamas
Israel's labour court has ruled that today's general strike must end by 14:30 local time (12:30 BST).
Local media reports earlier today said organisers planned to keep going until 18:00 local time (16:00 BST).
More on this shortly.
Image source, ReutersA huge crowd of people has gathered in Tel Aviv
Image source, ReutersProtesters want the Israeli government to prioritise signing a deal with Hamas to free the remaining hostages in Gaza
Image source, ReutersActivists are gathered outside the defence ministry to apply pressure to the government
Image source, ReutersAs strikes continue across Israel, a doctor has explained why he and his colleagues are walking out of their jobs to join the action.
Professor Yehuda Ullmann, chief of the surgery division at Rambam Hospital in Haifa, tells Reuters that striking is hard for physicians who work to "take care for the life and wellbeing" of patients.
"But we are in a very, very hard situation now," he adds. "We and all the country, because of the hostages".
"We can't stand aside and that's why we came to strike."
Lucy Williamson
Reporting from Tel Aviv
In Tel Aviv, Israel’s beach-side liberal heartland, there’s thin and scattered evidence of today’s general strike.
Most shops and restaurants in the centre of town appear to be open, a few buses rumble past, and there are plenty of people out in the streets and cafes.
A staff member at a local cafe told me that almost all the bars and restaurants in this area had shut last night in solidarity with the protests, but this morning all were back open again.
“I don’t agree with the decision,” she says. “We should have closed.”
Support for a deal is strong here – what varied was the price people were prepared to pay.
Tamara is picking up a street scooter, in large shades and perfect lipstick. “I don’t agree with the strike,” she says. “We want the hostages back – but we can’t stop everything; we need to live.”
Everyone I am speaking to saw the mass protests that flooded this city last night – the biggest since the 7 October attack.
Niva, 23, said she is surprised to see so many places open.
“The country is is a very confrontational mood now,” she says. “But he [Netanyanhu] isn’t listening.”
Something in this whole situation has to change, she tells me. “Why should we always live in fear?”
Image source, ReutersProtesters gathered in Tel Aviv last night
More now from Gil Dickmann, who has been speaking about his devastation after the body of his cousin Carmel Gat was recovered from Gaza, along with five others, on Saturday.
As protests swept across Tel Aviv on Sunday, Gil says he climbed to a high point on a bridge to watch the crowds from above.
"I saw all the protesters coming to cry and mourn, and do it with rage at the death of all the hostages," he tells a press conference.
Dickmann has been left with mixed feelings - hope that this could be a turning point for the rescue of other hostages, but knowing that it is too late for his cousin Carmel.
"Destroying Hamas is an important goal but you can never reach it as long as the hostages are still there, they are using hostages to protect their most precious assets," he adds.
Image source, Getty ImagesGil Dickmann's cousin, Carmel Gat, was one of six hostages recovered by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) over the weekend.
He tells a press conference this morning that Carmel was part of a ceasefire deal authorised by Hamas but not signed by the Israeli government. Her body was recovered from an underground tunnel in the Rafah area of southern Gaza on Saturday.
Dickmann says he was left "devastated" after being "so close" to a deal, but adds the Israeli government's "decision to delay" kept the hostages in captivity.
"All six of them were held together and all six of them were killed in captivity. We could have saved all of them," he adds.
He says the most important thing now is to focus on the hostages that are still in captivity, as "most of them are still alive just like Carmel was alive".
A private funeral for Carmel will be held this afternoon.
Image source, Getty ImagesArnon Bar-David, the head of the union Histadrut that called the general strike, says the stoppage will now end at 18:00 local time (16:00 BST) today, according to Israeli media reports.
Initially the strike action was due to run into tomorrow morning.
Earlier, we ran through some of the sectors taking part in today's strike. Here's some more detail:
Some cities and municipalities have announced they won't be taking part in the action, but in several Israeli districts services have been affected.
Many hospitals are operating reduced services and banks are closed, but certain private businesses remain open. Reuters also reports that some employers were allowing staff to join the strike.
Suitcases are "piling up" at Ben Gurion Airport, Histadrut union boss Peter Lerner tells the BBC's Newsday programme, with some some flight departures suspended this morning.
Bus and light rail services in some areas have been either cancelled or running reduced services.
Workers at the country's main commercial port in Haifa are also striking today, with Lerner adding that some are "slowing their activity".
"We're just at the beginning of this work day and we already see that the government is trying to challenge it in the courts," he adds.
"We are looking forward to a very interesting day of fighting for Israel."
Image source, Getty ImagesPalestinians take control of an Israeli tank after crossing the border fence with Israel on 7 October
On 7 October last year, Hamas gunmen launched an unprecedented attack on Israel from Gaza - the deadliest in Israel's history.
Waves of fighters stormed across Gaza's border into Israel. About 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. A total of 97 captives remain unaccounted for.
The Israeli military responded by launching a ground and air offensive in Gaza to destroy Hamas.
In Gaza, more than 40,000 people have been killed since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
Image source, EPAThe international division chief of Histadrut - the trade union behind today's general strike in Israel - says a general strike was "required".
Speaking to the BBC's Newsday programme, Peter Lerner says "the need for unity not division in our society and the requirements to restore the safety and security to people of Israel, and the internally displaced people here in Israel, required a general strike".
Activists are currently blocking roads across the country, with businesses, schools and travel among the sectors currently disrupted.
Those on strike are calling for the government to secure the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas.
As the general strike continues, Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz says the country will "respond with full force" following the recovery of the bodies of six hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
In a post on X, Katz blames Hamas for their deaths, saying they were "brutally executed... to instil fear and attempt to fracture Israeli society".
The Israel Defense Forces says the bodies were found in an underground tunnel in southern Gaza on Saturday, and they had been killed shortly before troops arrived.
Hamas insists Israel is responsible for their deaths, as it has refused to sign a ceasefire deal.
Image source, EPAA nurse administers polio vaccine drops at a United Nations school in Deir Al Balah
Meanwhile in Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry says medical teams successfully vaccinated 72,611 children against polio yesterday.
Sunday saw the first in a series of "humanitarian pauses" in fighting, to allow children to be vaccinated against the virus.
The drive comes after UN officials said a 10-month-old baby is partially paralysed after contracting polio - Gaza's first recorded case in 25 years.
Humanitarian groups say the virus has re-emerged as the war between Israel and Hamas has disrupted child vaccination programmes and caused damage to water and sanitation systems.
Image source, Family handoutBoth of Sharone Lifschitz's parents were abducted and taken into Gaza by Hamas during the attacks on 7 October. Her mother, Yocheved, was freed just under a month later, but her father remains in captivity.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Lifschitz says the discovery of the bodies of six hostages in Gaza is "what we have been frightened of all this time".
She says she welcomes the protests across Israel in response, and calls on the Netanyahu government "to look beyond the narrow interest of their own political parties and their own survival" to agree to a deal that would see the remaining hostages returned.
"Stop this ongoing senseless war and let's work towards a long term way of moving forward so the people of this region can look forward to a future," she says.
Image source, EPAAmong the businesses that had announced they would be impacted by the strike today was Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv.
Yesterday, it said that the airport would close to departing flights between 08:00 and 10:00 local time (06:00 to 08:00 BST)
However, the airport's website greeted visitors this morning with a banner that said the airport was operating as normal.
Flight trackers show some flights being delayed, some being diverted and others taking off relatively on time.
Image source, EPAAs protests continue, Israeli media is reporting that the state has filed an injunction with the National Labour Court against a general strike.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich contacted Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara on Sunday requesting a petition for an injunction. It appears she approved the request on Monday, according to Haaretz.
The Regional Labour Court will hear a request for injunctions at 10:30 local time (08:30 BST) submitted by the Gevurah Forum, which opposes the hostage deal.
Gevurah Forum's request states "this is clearly a political strike, blatantly illegal, carried out in a bullying manner".
The father of one of the hostages still held in Gaza tells the BBC he hopes the protests and strike could be a "watershed moment" for the Israeli government.
Jonathan Dekel-Chen's son, Sagui, was taken hostage during the 7 October attack on Israel.
He says it has become "increasingly clear" to him over the past few months that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition government are "sacrificing" any chance of securing the return of hostages in "the name of some fantastical idea of total victory over Hamas".
Dekel-Chen says he hopes the government will now see it's "time to do the right thing".
Asked how he copes with his son still being held captive, Dekel-Chen says he gets up every morning with a mission: "To get my son... back to his three little daughters".
A general strike is now under way in Israel.
It is unclear how widely the stoppage will be observed, after several cities and municipalities announced they would not take part.
In some regions across Israel, the following sectors and organisations will take part in the strike:
We mentioned in our last post that a forum representing some of the families of hostages in Gaza has called for further protests today.
We can bring you more detail on that now.
Posting on X, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum announced more than a dozen protest locations around the country.
These are mostly major roads and intersections around Tel Aviv and the north, where protesters plan to block traffic.
The protests are a continuation of those seen yesterday in Israel, in which thousands took to the streets to call for the government to accept a deal that would see the remaining hostages returned to Israel.
Jon Donnison
Reporting from Jerusalem
Image source, ReutersAfter last night’s protests - the biggest seen in Israel since the start of the war, with hundreds of thousands demonstrating across the country - today comes a general strike.
Thousands of businesses will be closed, some schools, universities, and government ministries.
A forum representing some hostage families has called for more protests across Israel today with plans to block the country’s busiest roads.
The outrage at Hamas is a given. But these protests are not about that. The anger is directed at the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is accused of blocking a ceasefire and hostage release deal to prioritise his own personal political survival.
After the latest discovery of the bodies of six hostages, some families say he has their loved ones’ blood on his hands. At last night’s protests there were chants of “murderer”.
Netanyahu rejects this. He says it is Hamas which is blocking a deal and insists they will be pursued and brought to account.