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Israeli police violently dispersed protesters in Israel using stun grenades and skunk water, according to reports, tactics used for years against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank

The mass protests and a general strike in Israel were triggered a day after Israel announced the Israeli army retrieved the bodies of six captives in Gaza, supposedly murdered by their captors.

Activists, including families of the captives, declared nationwide protests accusing the government of neglecting the hostages by failing to secure a ceasefire deal for Gaza.

A ceasefire would have undoubtedly secured the safe release of the six hostages recently found dead, along with others held in Gaza but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stalled on a truce agreement with Hamas to save his political skin, they argue.

Police used stun grenades for the first time against a domestic protest, according to reports, while on Monday the government ordered a crackdown on the "illegal" anti-Netanyahu strike.

On Sunday night, Israeli police mounted on horseback trampled the sister of one of the Israeli captives.

Israeli police also fired skunk water, a noxious crowd control weapon long used on Palestinians, to forcibly remove hundreds of Israelis protesting at Jerusalem’s main entrance.

Naama Lazimi, a member of the Israeli parliament, confirmed on social media that police threw stun grenades at protesters at a close range, saying that it knocked her to the ground.

In central Israel, protesters blocked traffic and chanted slogans demanding the return of captives, the New York Times reported.

Families of the captives have been accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of intentionally sabotaging a ceasefire deal that would bring the captives held in Gaza back to Israel, and of neglecting them for his own political aims.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said the blood of the captives is on the hands of the Israeli government and called on the public to "bring the nation to a halt".

Israel’s largest labour union echoed the message, calling for a general strike with some of the largest protests witnessed in Tel Aviv, where tensions escalated at night.

Protesters blocked the main highway, forced their way through security barricades, and lit bonfires on key roads bring the city to a grinding halt.

Israeli police detained groups of people, also firing water cannons into the crowd.

As night fell, Israeli police said they had arrested 29 people in Tel Aviv and finally cleared the highway, while five more people were arrested in Jerusalem and two in Haifa.

Businesses, schools, universities and transport systems across Israel have been disrupted by the protest action.