JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel said Sunday it had recovered the bodies of six hostages in Gaza, including a young Israeli-American man who became one of Hamas's highest-profile captives when his parents met with world leaders and urged his release, including at the Democratic convention last month.
The military said all six were killed shortly before they were to be rescued by Israeli forces. Their recovery sparked calls for mass protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is blamed by many of the hostages' families and much of the broader Israeli public for failing to bring them back alive in a deal with Hamas to end the 10-month war. Negotiations over such a deal have dragged on for months.
In a separate development, gunmen killed two people and wounded a third when they opened fire on a vehicle in the occupied West Bank, where Israel has carried out large-scale military raids in recent days. Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service confirmed the casualties.
Militants captured Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, and four other hostages at a music festival in southern Israel during the October 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war.
The Berkeley, California, resident lost part of his left arm to a grenade in the attack. In April, a Hamas-released video showed him missing his left hand and speaking clearly under duress, sparking renewed protests in Israel urging the government to do more to ensure his and others' freedoms.
The military 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.
According to the organization, the bodies were found in a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, about a kilometer (half a mile) from where another hostage, Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, was rescued alive last week.
“According to preliminary information, they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, told reporters.
Netanyahu has taken a hard line in the negotiations, repeatedly saying that military pressure is needed to bring the hostages home. Israeli media reported that he has clashed with top security officials who have said that a deal must be reached urgently.
A forum of hostage families called for a mass protest on Sunday, demanding a “complete shutdown of the country” to implement a ceasefire and release the hostages.
“A deal for the return of the hostages has been on the table for over two months. If it weren't for the delays, sabotage and excuses, those we heard died this morning would likely still be alive. It's time to bring our hostages home,” the statement said.
President Joe Biden, who met with the parents, said he was “outraged 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 continue to work day and night to secure a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages.”
The Goldberg-Polin family released a statement Sunday morning, hours after the Israeli military reported finding bodies in Gaza.
“With broken hearts, the Goldberg-Polin family is devastated by the passing of their beloved son and brother, Hersh,” the statement said. “The family thanks all of you for your love and support and requests your privacy at this time.”
Goldberg-Polin’s parents, U.S.-born immigrants to Israel, became perhaps the most prominent hostage family members on the international stage, meeting with Biden, Pope Francis and others and addressing the United Nations, urging the release of all the hostages.
On August 21, his parents delivered a speech to a hushed room at the Democratic National Convention, to sustained applause and chants of “bring him home.”
“This is a political convention. But having our only son — and all the cherished hostages — home is not a political issue. It’s 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, which represented the number of days their son had been held. It had long become part of a morning ritual: tearing off a new piece of tape, writing down a new day.
“I find it so remarkable how sickening it is every time,” Rachel Goldberg-Polin told The Associated Press in January, ahead of the 100-day mark. “And it's okay. I don't want to get used to it. I don't want anyone to get used to the fact that these people are missing.”
She asked other people around the world to adopt the ritual, not only for her son, who moved to Israel with his family when he was 7, but also for the other hostages and their families.
She and her husband tried to avoid reducing their son and the others held to numbers, describing Hersh as a music and soccer lover and a traveler with plans to attend college now that his military service was over. At events, she often addressed her son directly, hoping he could hear her, and urged him to live another day.
About 250 hostages were taken on October 7. Before the army announced the latest find of bodies, Israel said it believed 108 hostages were still being held in Gaza and that about a third of them were dead. In late August, the Israeli army found the bodies of six hostages in southern Gaza.
Eight hostages have been rescued by Israeli forces, the most recent find on Tuesday. More than 100 were freed during a week-long ceasefire in November in exchange for the release of Palestinians held by Israel.
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in two previous Israeli operations to rescue hostages. Hamas says several hostages were killed in Israeli airstrikes and failed rescue attempts. Israeli forces accidentally killed three Israelis who had escaped captivity in December.
Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, when they swept into southern Israel on October 7, attacking army bases and several farming communities.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who did 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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