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The bodies of six hostages, including that of a young US citizen, have been retrieved from Gaza after they were killed “shortly” before they could be rescued, Israel’s 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 had lobbied US 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 in Rafah and brought back to Israeli territory by the Israel Defense Forces on Sunday morning.
“According to our initial assessment, they were cruelly murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them,” said military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog apologised to the families for “failing to bring” their loved ones home safely. The news prompted outrage from the White House and demands for widescale protests to pressure Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into accepting a US-backed deal for the release of the remaining 101 hostages, many presumed dead, and for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that kidnapped roughly 240 people on October 7, blamed the US and Israel for the prisoners’ deaths because of their delays in negotiating a hostage deal, according to a statement by one of its senior leaders on Telegram.
The war was triggered after Hamas launched a cross-border raid, killing 1,200 people in Israel that day, according to official tallies. Israel’s subsequent war with Hamas has led to the deaths of more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials.
The ensuing 10-month hostage crisis appears to have no resolution in sight, despite several rounds of high-level negotiations by mediators from the US, Qatar and Egypt, including last week in Doha.
“I am devastated and outraged,” Biden said. “Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes. We will keep working around the clock for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages.”
Goldberg-Polin had been forced to appear in a hostage video released in April that showed him with his left arm severed and pleading for medical care. His parents have become prominent advocates for the release of the Israeli hostages, including at the Democratic National Convention.
Gat, who was 40, was said by other released hostages to have been leading yoga and meditation sessions to keep up their spirits.
Talks to reach another swap of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners — and a possible ceasefire in Gaza — have stalled in recent weeks over Netanyahu’s demands that the IDF retain a presence inside Gaza’s border with Egypt.
Many of the families of the hostages see that as a precondition that is scuppering the chances of a hostage-swap deal with Hamas, which has demanded a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the besieged enclave.
Israel’s Channel 12 news reported at the weekend that Netanyahu clashed with his defence chief, Yoav Gallant, and formally asked the security cabinet to back his demand.
“The cabinet must gather immediately and reverse the decision made on Thursday,” said Gallant after the bodies were retrieved. “It is too late for the hostages who were murdered in cold blood.”
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum called for protests on Sunday, saying “the delay in signing the deal has led to their deaths, and those of many other hostages”.
“We call on Netanyahu: stop hiding,” it said. “Provide the public with a justification for this ongoing abandonment.”
In a recorded statement on Sunday, Netanyahu said: “Hamas refuses to negotiate. Those who murder hostages don’t want a deal.”
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