Israel's opposition leader backs calls for strike in support of captives

Israel's opposition leader has backed calls for a strike on Sunday in support of captives being held in Gaza. 

In a post on X on Tuesday, Yair Lapid urged Israelis to go on strike out of "solidarity," "because the families have asked, and that’s reason enough,"  and "no one has a monopoly on emotions, on mutual responsibility, on Jewish values,".

Around 20 captives are said to still be alive in Gaza, and family members have called for a strike on Sunday, the first day of the working week in Israel, .

"Go on strike even if you think differently about the war, about the reserves, about the draft-dodging law," Lapid said.

"It won’t make you less right-wing, only more human. We don’t need to carry all our opinions everywhere; we can simply pause for one day and say that this is terrible, and it’s sad... Go on strike so that people know that you, too, were shattered watching Avitar’s video, that the shock doesn’t belong to any one side, that identifying with the families is not a political stance. Go on strike so that for at least one day, it’s clear that we still have a shared good. That being Israeli means, first and foremost, having a heart".