Jerusalem: The Israeli military has identified the bodies of six hostages recovered from a tunnel in the Gaza Strip and says their militant captors killed them shortly before Israeli forces could rescue them.
Their remains were recovered Saturday “from an underground tunnel in the Rafah area” and returned to Israel where they were formally identified, the military said.
It said the dead hostages were Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino, who were all seized by Palestinian militants during Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the ongoing war.
Gat was taken from the southern Israeli kibbutz community of Beeri, while the remaining five, ages 23 to 32, were abducted from a music festival near the Gaza border.
They were among 251 people taken hostage during the October 7 attack, 97 of whom remain captive in Gaza including 33 the Israeli army says are dead.
The family of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin announced the young man’s death early Sunday, ending a relentless campaign by his parents to rescue him that included meetings with world leaders and an address to the Democratic convention last month.
Israel’s announcement is bound to bring urgent new calls for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a deal to bring home the remaining hostages. The Israeli leader 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.
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