JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel on Sunday said it had recovered the bodies of six hostages in Gaza, including a young Israeli-American man who became one of the most well-known captives held by Hamas as his parents met with world leaders and pressed for his release.
The military said all six had been killed shortly before the arrival of Israeli forces. Their recovery sparked calls for mass protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom many Israelis blame for failing to bring them back alive in a deal with Hamas to end the 10-month-old war. Negotiations over such a deal have dragged on for months.
Netanyahu said Israel would hold Hamas accountable for killing the hostages in “cold blood,” and blamed the terror group for the stalled negotiations, saying “whoever murders hostages doesn’t want a deal."
Militants seized Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, and four of the other hostages at a music festival in southern Israel during Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, which triggered the war.
The native of Berkeley, California, lost part of his left arm to a grenade in the attack. In April, a Hamas-issued video showed him alive but with his left hand missing, sparking new protests in Israel urging the government to do more to secure the hostages' release.
The army identified the other dead hostages as Ori Danino, 25; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Almog Sarusi, 27; and Alexander Lobanov, 33; who were also taken from the music festival. The sixth, Carmel Gat, 40, was abducted from the nearby farming community of Be'eri.
It said the bodies were recovered from a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, around a kilometer (half a mile) from where another hostage, Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, was rescued alive last week.
Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, a military spokesperson, said the army believed there were hostages in the area but had no specific intelligence. He said Israeli forces found the bodies several dozen meters (yards) underground as “ongoing combat” was underway, but that there was no firefight in the tunnel itself.
He said there was no doubt that Hamas had killed them.
Hamas has offered to release the hostages in return for an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including high-profile militants.
Izzat al-Rishq, a senior Hamas official, said the hostages would still be alive if Israel had accepted a U.S.- backed cease-fire proposal that Hamas said it had agreed to back in July.
Families of hostages call for a ‘complete halt of the country’
Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed and says military pressure is needed to bring home the hostages.
Israel's Channel 12 reported that he got into a shouting match at a security Cabinet meeting late Thursday with his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, who accused him of prioritizing control of a strategic corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border — a major sticking point in the talks — over the lives of the hostages. The Cabinet reportedly voted in favor of remaining in the corridor over the objections of Gallant, who said it would prevent a hostage deal.
An Israeli official confirmed the report and said three of the hostages — Goldberg-Polin, Yerushalmi and Gat — had been slated to be released in the first phase of a cease-fire proposal discussed back in July. The official was not authorized to brief media about the negotiations and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“In the name of the state of Israel, I hold their families close to my heart and ask forgiveness,” Gallant said Sunday after the remains were recovered. He later called for the Cabinet to reverse its decision.
A forum of hostage families called for a massive protest on Sunday, demanding a “complete halt of the country” to push for the implementation of a cease-fire and hostage release.
“A deal for the return of the hostages has been on the table for over two months. Were it not for the delays, sabotage, and excuses those whose deaths we learned about this morning would likely still be alive,” it said in a statement.