POLICE in Israel blasted protesters with water cannon and made dozens of arrests today as they clamped down on a one-day nationwide strike that disrupted transport and businesses across Israel.

The protests took place as Israel announced its intention to move Palestinians from combat zones to southern Gaza as plans move ahead for a widely slammed military offensive in some of the territory’s most populated areas.

The “day of stoppage” in Israel on Sunday was organised by two groups representing some of the families of hostages and the bereaved.

About 90 municipalities — Tel Aviv Yaffo the largest — three universities, the entire Kibbutzim movement, the lawyers’ bar, numerous high-tech companies, several small unions in the medical, legal and journalism fields and countless private businesses joined the strike. 

The police clampdown comes as protesters demand an end to fighting they believe endangers the 20 hostages seized by Hamas on October 7 2023 believed to still be alive in captivity. 

Protesters chanted: “We don’t win a war over the bodies of hostages” as they gathered at dozens of points throughout Israel, including outside politicians’ homes, military headquarters and on major highways, where they were sprayed with water cannon as they blocked lanes and lit bonfires. 

Among the protesters in Tel Aviv was a woman carrying a photo of an emaciated child from Gaza. Such images were once rare at Israeli demonstrations, but have now begun to appear more often.

Police said they had arrested 38 people as part of the nationwide demonstration, one of the fiercest since the uproar over six hostages found dead in Gaza last September.

“Military pressure doesn’t bring hostages back — it only kills them,” former hostage Arbel Yehoud said at a demonstration in Tel Aviv’s hostage square. “The only way to bring them back is through a deal, all at once, without games.”

As pressure grows at home for a ceasefire deal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right coalition allies continued to dig their heels in today, opposing any agreement that leaves Hamas in power. 

He said: “Those who today call for an end to the war without defeating Hamas are not only hardening Hamas’s position and delaying the release of our hostages. They are also ensuring that the horrors of October 7 will be repeated.”

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich described Sunday’s stoppage as “a bad and harmful campaign that plays into Hamas’s hands, buries the hostages in the tunnels and attempts to get Israel to surrender to its enemies and jeopardise its security and future.”

But Anat Angrest, mother of hostage Matan Angrest, told a rally that: “Today, we stop everything to save and bring back the hostages and soldiers. Today, we stop everything to remember the supreme value of the sanctity of life.”

However, solidarity with the people of Gaza among Israelis remains scarce and mentions of war crimes and genocide are taboo. 

The main banners under which families gather in the well attended weekly protests call on the Israeli government to save “the hostages and the soldiers” — excluding any mention of the Palestinians. 

An end to the conflict does not appear near and ceasefire talks now appear to have stalled.

But massive mobilisations have continued to take place across the world calling for an end to the Israeli onslaught.

In one demonstration in the United States, tens of thousands took to the streets of New York City on Saturday, closing down Manhattan.

Chris Smalls, a the founder and former president of the Amazon Union, told the rally about his mission onboard the Handala as part of the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza and his imprisonment and torture by the Israeli authorities. 

He said: “I was the only black passenger of the Handala. It is no coincidence that I was one of the last to be released from prison.” 

Hospitals and eyewitnesses in Gaza reported at least 17 Palestinian aid-seekers had been killed by Israeli forces today, including nine awaiting aid trucks close to the Morag corridor.

Hamza Asfour, an aid-seeker, said he was just north of the corridor awaiting a convoy when Israeli snipers fired — first to disperse the crowds, then from tanks hundreds of yards away.

He saw two people with gunshot wounds — one in the chest and other in the shoulder.

“It’s either to take this risk or wait and see my family die of starvation,” he said. “There is no other option.”

In response to questions about deaths from two incidents near its distribution points, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, funded by the US and Israel, refused to acknowledge that there had even been gunfire on Sunday “at or near” its sites, located in military-controlled areas.

Israel’s military did not immediately respond to questions about strikes in the three areas.

Israel announced on Saturday that it is preparing to move Palestinians from combat zones to southern Gaza as plans move ahead for a military offensive in some of the territory’s most populated areas.

The move has been slammed by governments and humanitarian agencies as ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians by Israel.

The Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza, COGAT, said the supply of tents to the territory would resume on Sunday. 

The military said it had no comment on when the mass movement of Palestinians would begin, but Defence Minister Israel Katz said on social media that “we are now in the stage of discussions to finalise the plan to defeat Hamas in Gaza.”

A spokesman for the Gaza City municipality said ethnic cleansing was already taking place in the Zeitoun neighbourhood after six days of non-stop Israeli air strikes, shelling and demolitions.

Some 50,000 Palestinians reside there, most of them with virtually no access to food and water, according to the civil defence agency.

Ghassan Kashko, sheltering with his family in a school building in Zeitoun, told the AFP news agency today that the Israeli attacks “don’t stop.” 

“We don’t know the taste of sleep,” he added.

A statement from Hamas said the Israelis had been carrying out a “sustained offensive in the eastern and southern neighbourhoods of Gaza City, particularly in Zeitoun.”