Israel Railways workers staged a surprise strike Sunday afternoon and disrupted service on the line connecting Hod Hasharon and Beersheva. In addition, the Israel Railways garage in Lod was shut down, as was the fueling station in Haifa.

This was not all, however. Five stations were shut down with no prior warning: Tel Aviv Haganah, Moshe Dayan in Rishon Letzion, Yavneh West, Holon and Sderot. These stations are now to remain closed for an unlimited time, the workers said. Passengers were made to get off the trains that they were on without reaching their destinations, causing anger among many who were thus stranded on their way home from work.

The Israel Railways management accused the workers’ union of behaving in a “thuggish” manner. It said it would request a court order against the workers’ partial strike.

The railway workers’ union said that it had given employees instructions not to make passengers get off before their stations, but that Management’s decisions created overload at the stations and this necessitated taking passengers off the trains.