Mr Gallant meanwhile called on the security cabinet to reverse the decision made last week to continue an Israeli presence along the Gaza-Egypt border – a decision that is widely seen as having sunk the hostage release talks in Cairo.
Announcing a general strike on Monday, Arnon Bar-David, chief of the Labor Federation, said “a deal is more important than anything else”.
Channelling the spirit of Israel’s unwritten social contact, he added: “We are no longer one people; we are camp against camp … we need to bring back the State of Israel.
“We are getting body bags instead of a deal.”
Yet despite mounting pressure, Mr Netanyahu remains resolute. He has long preferred to emphasise a second, less noble, lesson that Israel took from Munich: that terror should be met with terror through extrajudicial assassination of those responsible.