Israel Recovers Bodies of 6 Hostages Executed by Hamas, Including American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, in Gaza

Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in southern Gaza where they were killed not long before Israeli troops reached them, the military said on Sunday.

The Israeli military announced the recovery of the bodies from underground in the southern city of Rafah. The bodies of Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Ori Danino have been returned to Israel, military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters in a briefing.

"According to our initial estimation, they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists a short time before we reached them," he said.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not rest until it caught those responsible.

"Whoever murders hostages—does not want a deal," he said.

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.

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 Hostage Families Forum called on Netanyahu to take responsibility and explain what was holding up an agreement.

"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 said.

Israel's Hagari said that days earlier, hostage Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a member of the Bedouin community in southern Israel, was rescued about a kilometer away.

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, he said.

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".

"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," he said in a statement.

Goldberg-Polin, 23, was captured at a music festival near the Gaza border and appeared in a video released by Hamas in late April.

Earlier, speaking to reporters in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Biden said he was "still optimistic" about a ceasefire deal to stop the conflict, adding that "people are continuing to meet."

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.

(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem and Stephanie Kelly in Rehoboth Beach; James Mackenzie in Jerusalem and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo; Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Sharon Singleton)

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