The bodies of six hostages, including that of a young US citizen, have been retrieved from Gaza after they were killed “shortly” before Israeli troops discovered them, 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 dozens of metres underground in Rafah and brought back to Israeli territory by the Israel Defense Forces early 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.
The IDF declined to share more details immediately, including how the hostages were killed and when, citing the privacy of the families and the early stage of the investigation.
Hamas suggested in a statement that they had died in an Israeli air strike. The IDF described the Hamas statement as “psychological warfare”.
The bodies were discovered within a kilometre of where another hostage was rescued last week. But the IDF did not have any specific intelligence about the location of the six hostages, a second spokesman, Lt Col Nadav Shoshani said in a later briefing, indicating that they had not been killed as part of an active rescue operation.
“We had a general idea that hostages might be in the area, and we were in the process of conducting our operations above and under the ground,” he said, adding that the troops had been operating with great caution.
News of the deaths deepened a political crisis in Israel, where many of the families of the hostages blame Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for delaying a US-backed deal by demanding that Israel hold on to territory on the Gaza-Egypt border.
Netanyahu released a statement blaming Hamas for the failure of the hostage-swap negotiations, which included high-level talks in mid-August, backed by the US, Egypt and Qatar.
“Hamas is continuing to steadfastly refuse all proposals,” he said. “Even worse, at the exact same time, it murdered six of our hostages — whoever murders hostages, does not want a deal.”
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog apologised to the families for “failing to bring” their loved ones home safely, while opposition leader Yair Lapid urged a big trade union to declare a nationwide strike.
The White House said US President Joe Biden was “devastated and outraged”, and the families of the hostages demanded large scale protests to pressure Netanyahu into accepting the 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 hostages’ deaths because of their delays in negotiating a 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.
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.”
Kamala Harris, the vice-president who is running against Donald Trump in the US presidential election, also blasted Hamas.
“The threat Hamas poses to the people of Israel — and American citizens in Israel — must be eliminated and Hamas cannot control Gaza,” she said. “The Palestinian people too have suffered under Hamas’ rule for nearly two decades.”
On Capitol Hill, Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator, said that the US and Israel needed to “increase the cost” to Iran and its oil industry if they wanted the hostages home.
“Iran is the great Satan here. Hamas is the junior partner. They’re barbaric, religious Nazis, Hamas. They could not care less about the Palestinian people,” Graham said.
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.”
