Hello and welcome to Newshour live from the BBC World Service in London.

I'm Rebecca Keesby and we head straight to Israel where today a general strike has been underway.

Public transport including the airports have been affected.

Many schools, closed banks and businesses operating with restrictions and

several roadblocks have been set up by

protesters.

They're calling on the government to sign a deal to secure the release of the remaining

97 hostages still unaccounted for in the Gaza Strip.

Well, within the past couple of hours, Israel's Labour Court in Tel Aviv has ordered an

end to the general strike ruling that workers must return to work.

Members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government

have been describing the strike as both political and illegal,

but earlier today a spokesman for the main trades union calling the strike told

the BBC it was the right course of action to put pressure on the government to get the hostages

home.

Peter Lerner is the spokesman for Hysterut Union.

The damage to Israel's economy, to the workers of Israel, the concerns that we have with political influences in the negotiation process and 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.

Well today's general strike follows massive street protests on Sunday after the bodies of six

hostages were recovered from Gaza. Even medical workers have joined the strike today including

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