Israel Recovers Six Hostages Bodies In Gaza As Citizens Demand Cease Fire
Mixed Reactions have trailed the recevery of six bodies of death Israeli Hostages kept by Hamas in Gaza.
The dead Hostages were discovered by the troops as parts of the ongoing efforts to rescue the hostage taken by Hamas since October 7.
Their deaths leaves 101 Israeli and foreign captives still in Gaza, but around a third of these are known to have died, with the fate of others unknown.
The recovered bodies were from about 250 hostages captured during the Hamas-led shock incursion into southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza on Oct. 7 last year.
About 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas assault, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, at least 40,691 Palestinians have been killed and 94,060 injured in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, the enclave’s health ministry says.
While few Hostages have been rescued alive, scores were killed which Hamas said they died as a result of Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment of residential buildings, health facilities and schools in the besieged enclave.
Reuters quoted Israel military in a statement on Sunday saying that, the bodies of the six hostages were discovered in a tunnel in southern Gaza where they were apparently killed not long before Israeli troops reached them, the military said on Sunday.
Israel’s Military Spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporter’s at a briefing that, the bodies of Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino have been returned to Israel.
He said, “According to our initial estimation, they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists a short time before we reached them”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been under pressure after nearly 11 months of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza to reach a deal that includes a ceasefire and the release of remaining hostages.
He said that, Israel would not rest until it caught those responsible for the death of the Hostages saying that, “Whoever murders hostages – does not want a deal”.
Israeli President has issued a public apology to the families of the dead captives, admitting that their efforts to return them alive had “failed.”
Middle East Monitor reported Hamas sources saying that, while the Israeli Army claims that it came across the bodies in a tunnel in Rafah, and that no resistance fighters were in the area, the circumstances of the captives’ death are likely no different than the others.
According to Hamas , since October 7, the Israeli Army has bombed, suffocated, starved, and even shot its own captives to death as part of its brutal assault on the Gaza Strip.
It added that, Netanyahu and his accomplices have determined that the continuation of the genocide war against Palestinians in Gaza is more valuable to them than the return of any captives.
Senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters that Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu is to be blamed for the death of the Hostages because of his refusal to sign a ceasefire agreement.
He said, “Netanyahu is responsible for the killing of Israeli prisoners. The Israelis should choose between Netanyahu and the deal”.
Hamas Political Bureau member Izzat Al-Rishq who also blamed Netanyahu for the death of the Hostages stated, “The responsibility for the death of the prisoners held by the resistance lies with the occupation, which insists on continuing its genocidal war and evading an agreement to reach a ceasefire, as well as with the American administration for its bias, support, and partnership in this aggression.
“The one who kills our people daily is the occupation with American weapons, and the discovery of the prisoners’ bodies in the Gaza Strip shows they were only killed by zionist bombing. If President Biden truly cares about their lives, he should stop supporting this enemy with money and weapons and pressure the occupation to end its aggression immediately.
“The one who will pay the price for these brutal crimes and the genocidal war against our people for the past eleven months is Netanyahu, his extremist government, and all supporters of this aggression.
“We hold the American administration and Biden himself responsible for the daily crimes and the genocide war in the Gaza Strip, which has resulted in more than 150,000 martyrs and injured, 69% of whom are children and women.
“History will remember Biden, as he leaves the White House, as a partner and supporter of the war criminals Netanyahu and his gang.
“Hamas cared more about the lives of the prisoners in its custody than Biden did, which is why it agreed to his proposal on this matter and to the UN Security Council resolution, while Netanyahu rejected both. His administration submitted to Netanyahu’s conditions, aiming to obstruct the agreement to maintain his power.
“While the entity continues to sink deeper into the quagmire of Gaza and break under the weight of its own contradictions, the resistance rising all across Palestine has been clear since the beginning.
“The price we will take for five living prisoners or ten is the same price we would have taken for all prisoners had they not been killed by the enemy’s bombing operations”.
Israel’s Hagari had stated days earlier that, hostage Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a member of the Bedouin community in southern Israel, was rescued about a kilometre away.
He said, “After Alkadi was located, troops were told to be cautious because other hostages might be in the area, but there had been no precise information on their location”.
U.S. President Joe Biden, who has closely followed the fate of the hostages, said the six included Israeli American Goldberg-Polin and that he was “devastated and outraged”.
In a statement Biden said, “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”.
Goldberg-Polin, 23, was captured at a music festival near the Gaza border and appeared in a video released by Hamas in late April.
Speaking to reporters earlier at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Biden said he was “still optimistic” about a ceasefire deal to stop the conflict, adding that “people are continuing to meet.”
The recovery of the six dead hostages at once on Sunday has sent shockwaves across Israel and spurred further protests by Israelis demanding a hostage release deal.
Former Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert publicly called for wide protests, asserting that Netanyahu does not seek to return the captives alive and must be overthrown.
Opposition leader, Yair Lapid also blamed Netanyahu for the six captives’ deaths directly, saying “they were alive,” indicating that they could have been returned to their families safely if a deal had been reached with the resistance in Gaza.
The Hostage Families Forum called on Netanyahu to take responsibility and explain what was holding up an agreement.
The Forum stated, “They were all murdered in the last few days, after surviving almost 11 months of abuse, torture, and starvation in Hamas captivity. The delay in signing the deal has led to their deaths and those of many other hostages”.
It could be recalled that, months of stop-start negotiations mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt have so far failed to secure a ceasefire agreement, despite increased U.S. pressure for a deal and repeated trips by top officials to the region.
The two sides have agreed to pause fighting for at least eight-hours daily from Sunday to Tuesday to allow the U.N. World Health Organization (WHO) and Palestinian medics to begin to vaccinate 640,000 children in Gaza.
The campaign comes after the WHO confirmed last month that a baby was partially paralysed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.
The war has created a major humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as well as fuelling tensions across the region and in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli officials said on Sunday that three Israelis had been killed when their vehicle came under fire near the city of Hebron.
Hundreds of Israeli troops have been carrying out raids across the West Bank since Wednesday in one of their largest actions in the area in months, which Israel says is aimed at rooting out Islamist militants.
Hamas praised the West Bank attack, but did not claim responsibility for it, saying it was a “natural response to the massacres and genocide in the Gaza Strip”.
