The bodies of six hostages, including a young American citizen, have been found in Gaza after they were killed “shortly” before Israeli troops discovered them, the Israeli military said.
The bodies of Carmel Gat, who was kidnapped from the Be’eri kibbutz; Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a 23-year-old Israeli-American whose parents have lobbied U.S. President Joe Biden for his return; and four others kidnapped from the Nova music festival — Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino — were found in a tunnel dozens of meters underground in Rafah and returned to Israeli territory by the Israel Defense Forces early Sunday morning.
“According to our initial assessment, they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists before we could reach them,” military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.
The IDF declined to immediately share further details, including how and when the hostages were killed, citing the privacy of the families and the early stages of the investigation.
Hamas claimed in a statement that they had died in an Israeli airstrike. The IDF described Hamas’s claim as “psychological warfare”.
The bodies were found a kilometer away from where another hostage was being held. be saved last week. But the IDF did not have any specific intelligence on the location of the six hostages, a second spokesman, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, said at a later news conference, indicating that they were not killed in an active rescue operation.
“We have a general idea that there may be hostages in the area and we are in the process of conducting operations above and below ground.,” The military was operating with extreme caution, he added.
News of the deaths has deepened a political crisis in Israel, where many families of the hostages blame Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for stalling a U.S.-backed deal by requiring Israel to retain territory on the Gaza-Egypt border.
Netanyahu issued a statement blaming Hamas for the failure of hostage exchange talks, including high-level talks in mid-August, backed by the United States, Egypt and Qatar.
“Hamas continues to steadfastly reject all proposals,” he said. “Worse still, at the same time, they killed six of our hostages — anyone who kills hostages does not want a deal.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog apologized to families for “failing to bring” their loved ones home safely, while opposition leader Yair Lapid called on a major union to declare a nationwide strike.
The White House said US President Joe Biden was “deeply saddened and outraged”, and the hostages’ families had called for large-scale protests to pressure Netanyahu to accept a US-backed deal to release the remaining detainees. 101 hostagesMany people are reported dead, and a ceasefire in Gaza is called.
Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that kidnapped some 240 people on October 7, blamed the United States and Israel for the hostages’ deaths because they were slow to negotiate a deal, according to a statement by one of the group’s senior leaders on Telegram.
The War was activated after Hamas launched a cross-border raid that killed 1,200 people in Israel that day, according to official figures. Israel’s subsequent war with Hamas has resulted in the deaths of more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials.
The 10-month-old hostage crisis appears to have no end in sight, despite several rounds of high-level talks between the parties.
Biden said. “Hamas leaders will pay a price for these crimes. We will continue to work around the clock to reach an agreement that secures the release of the remaining hostages.”
Goldberg-Polin was forced to appear in a hostage video released in April that showed him with his left arm severed and pleading for medical attention. His parents have become prominent advocates for the release of the Israeli hostages, including at Democratic National Convention.
Gat, 40, who was released by other hostages, said he led yoga and meditation sessions to keep his spirits up.
Talks aimed at an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners — and a possible ceasefire in Gaza — have stalled in recent weeks over Netanyahu’s demands that the IDF maintain a presence inside Gaza’s border with Egypt.
Many families of the hostages see it as a precondition that would dash any chance of a hostage swap with Hamas, which has demanded a full Israeli withdrawal from the besieged enclave.
Israel’s Channel 12 News reported over the weekend that Netanyahu had clashed with his defense minister, Yoav Gallantand formally asked the security cabinet to support his request.
“The cabinet must meet immediately and reverse the decision taken on Thursday,” Gallant said after the bodies were found. “It is too late for the hostages who were brutally murdered.”
The Forum for Hostage and Missing Families has called for protests on Sunday, saying “the delay in signing the agreement has led to the deaths of them and many other hostages”.
“We call on Netanyahu: stop hiding,” the post said. “Give the public a justification for this ongoing abdication.”
