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, including at the Democratic convention last month.
The military said all six had been killed shortly before they were to be rescued by Israeli forces. Their recovery sparked calls for mass protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who many families of hostages and much of the wider Israeli public 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.
In a separate development, gunmen shot and killed two people and wounded a third when they opened fire on a vehicle in the occupied West Bank, where Israel has been carrying out large-scale military raids in recent days. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service confirmed the casualties.
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, his left hand missing and clearly speaking under duress, sparking new protests in Israel urging the government to do more to secure his and others’ freedom.
The army identified the other 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 (0.6 mile) from where another hostage, Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, was rescued alive last week.
“According to preliminary information, they were cruelly murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesperson, told reporters.
Netanyahu has taken a tough line in negotiations and repeatedly said that military pressure is needed to bring home the hostages. According to Israeli media, he has feuded with top security officials who have said a deal should be reached urgently.
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’s time to bring our hostages home,” it said in a statement.
President Joe Biden, who had met with the parents, said he was “devastated and outraged.”
“It is as tragic as it is reprehensible,” he said. “Make no mistake, Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes. And we will keep working around the clock for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages.”
The Goldberg-Polin family issued a statement early Sunday, hours after the Israeli army said it had located bodies in Gaza.
“With broken hearts, the Goldberg-Polin family is devastated to announce the death of their beloved son and brother, Hersh,” it said. “The family thanks you all for your love and support and asks for privacy at this time.”
Goldberg-Polin’s parents, U.S.-born immigrants to Israel, became perhaps the most high-profile relatives of hostages on the international stage. They met with Biden, Pope Francis and others and addressed the United Nations, urging the release of all hostages.
On Aug. 21, his parents addressed a hushed hall at the Democratic National Convention — after sustained applause and chants of “bring him home.”
“This is a political convention. But needing our only son — and all of the cherished hostages — home is not a political issue. It is a humanitarian issue,” said his father, Jon Polin. His mother, Rachel, who bowed her head during the ovation and touched her chest, said “Hersh, if you can hear us, we love you, stay strong, survive.”
Both wore stickers with the number 320, representing the number of days their son had been held. It had long become part of a morning ritual — tear a new piece of tape, write down another day.
“I find it so remarkable how nauseating it is every single time,’’ Rachel Goldberg-Polin told The Associated Press in January, ahead of the 100-day-mark. “And it’s good. I don’t want to get used to it. I don’t want anybody to get used to the fact that these people are missing.’’
She asked other people around the world to take up the ritual, too, not only for her son, who moved to Israel with his family when he was 7, but for the other hostages and their families.
She and her husband sought to keep their son and the others held from being reduced to numbers, describing Hersh as a music and soccer lover and traveler with plans to attend university since his military service had ended. At events she often addressed her son directly in the hope he could hear her, urging him to live another day.
Some 250 hostages were taken on Oct. 7. Before the military’s announcement of the latest discovery of bodies, Israel said it believed 108 hostages were still held in Gaza and about one-third of them were dead. In late August, the Israeli military recovered the bodies of six hostages in southern Gaza.
Eight hostages have been rescued by Israeli forces, the most recent found on Tuesday. More than 100 were freed during a weeklong cease-fire in November in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Two previous Israeli operations to free hostages killed scores of Palestinians. Hamas says several hostages have been killed in Israeli airstrikes and failed rescue attempts. Israeli troops mistakenly killed three Israelis who escaped captivity in December.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, when they stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, attacking army bases and several farming communities.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not say how many were fighters or civilians. It has displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, often multiple times, and plunged the besieged territory into a humanitarian catastrophe.
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