The head of Israel's powerful Histadrut labour union called for a general strike on Monday to pressure the government into reaching a deal to return Israeli hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.

Arnon Bar-David called on all civilian workers to join the strike and said Ben Gurion airport, Israel's main air transport hub, would be closed from 8am local time (3pm AEST).

The Histadrut represents some 800,000 workers in such areas as health care, transportation and banking.

Mr Bar-David said that for now, the strike would just be for Monday but he sharply criticised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government for failing to bring hostages back alive. 

A dozen bodies of hostages have been brought back to Israel in the past week. Some 101 still remain, although Israel believes one-third of them are no longer alive.

"The neglect of the economy must be stopped," Mr Bar-David said at a news conference.

"Israel must be returned to a reasonable routine… We must reach a deal. A deal is more important than anything else.

"We are getting body bags instead of a deal."

It comes after Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid called for a strike to shut down the economy in order to pressure the government to reach a deal to release the remaining hostages in the Gaza Strip.

Mr Lapid, who is also a former prime minister, called on every Israeli "whose heart was broken this morning" to join a major protest in Tel Aviv later in the day.

He also called on Israel's main labour union, businesses and municipalities to go on strike.

The Histadrut labour federation, which represents hundreds of thousands of public sector workers, decided to go on strike after meeting with families of hostages.

Israel's Manufacturers' Association said it supported a strike and criticised the government for failing to bring hostages back alive, which it called a "moral duty".

"Without the return of the hostages we will not be able to end the war, we will not be able to rehabilitate ourselves as a society and we will not be able to begin to rehabilitate the Israeli economy. We are torn and divided and this is the place to act to unite Israeli society," said association head Ron Tomer.

"The government must ensure that it does everything, for the return of the hostages as soon as possible, even under the limitations of a limited ceasefire, and I call on all businesses in Israel to act to make it happen."

Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages in Gaza, including that of Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, late on Saturday, local time.

The Israeli military said in a statement on Sunday that the bodies of Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino had been brought to Israel.

This would be the first general strike since the Hamas attack on October 7.

A general strike last year during Mr Netanyahu's controversial judicial overhaul helped lead to a temporary delay in the plan.

At least 40,691 Palestinians have been killed and 94,060 injured in Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip since October 7, the enclave's health ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

The war was triggered when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which is classed as a terrorist organisation by Australia, attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Reuters/AP