Israel's military has announced that its troops have recovered the bodies of six captives, including one with dual US citizenship, from a tunnel in southern Gaza, as it continues its deadly 11-month assault on the Palestinian enclave.
More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched war on Gaza on October 7 following an attack led by the Palestinian group Hamas. Some 250 people were taken prisoner following the October 7 attacks in southern Israel. The coastal enclave has been reduced to rubble amid non-stop shelling as Israel has repeatedly refused to agree to a ceasefire deal to free the captives.
The army said Sunday that the remains were recovered “from an underground tunnel in the Rafah area” and returned to Israel, where they were formally identified. It said the captives were killed shortly before their bodies were recovered.
The captives were identified as Almog Sarusi, Alex Lobanov, Carmel Gat, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi and Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
A forum of captives' relatives, who have criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the affair, called for a mass protest later on Sunday, demanding a “complete shutdown of the country” to push for the implementation of a ceasefire and the release of the remaining captives.
“The return of the hostages has been under negotiation for more than two months. If it were not for the delays, sabotage and excuses, those whose deaths we learned of this morning would probably still be alive. It is time to bring our hostages home,” the Forum for Missing Hostages and Families said in a statement.
Senior Hamas official Izzat al-Risheq said the six captives were killed in Israeli airstrikes. Al-Risheq also blamed the United States for its “bias, support and partnership” in the 11-month war in the besieged territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Sunday to “settle accounts” with Hamas, saying “we will pursue them.”
“Those who kill hostages do not want an agreement” for a truce in Gaza, Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu accused of 'refusing' to reach an agreement
Menachem Klein, a professor of political science at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, blamed Netanyahu and his cabinet for “refusing” to reach an agreement to secure the release of the captives, a move he said he had “signed off on.” [the Israeli captives’] “death warrant”.
“Israel refuses to accept reality,” he told Al Jazeera. “That is the problem. And it cost the lives of Israeli hostages.”
In a statement, US President Joe Biden said he was “devastated and outraged” by the deaths of the six captives, including Israeli-American Goldberg-Polin.
Biden, whose administration has backed and funded Israel’s bombing of Gaza, vowed that “Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes, and we will continue to work tirelessly to reach an agreement that secures the release of the remaining hostages.”
A ceasefire deal proposed by Biden in May, which called for the release of the captives, was rejected by Netanyahu.
Days earlier, Kaid Farhan al-Kadi, who belongs to a Bedouin community in southern Israel, was rescued about a kilometer away, the army said.
Israeli publication YNet quoted an unnamed Israeli official as saying that three of the captives who were killed were on a list approved by Hamas on July 2 for release. However, Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify the information.
Among the confirmed dead was Carmel Gat, whose cousin Gil Dickmann has been holding daily protests to pressure the Netanyahu government to negotiate with Hamas for the release of the remaining captives.
For Dickmann, the situation is personal. On October 7, her aunt Kinneret Gat was also killed in Kibbutz Beeri in southern Israel.
“Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t listen!” Dickmann had said during one of the protests. “Benjamin Netanyahu, leave politics out of the negotiating room!”
Around 100 captives are still in Gaza, while 105 were released under a deal with Hamas, which has made a ceasefire a condition for releasing the remaining captives.
But Israel has been accused of war crimes and atrocities against Palestinians. The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has requested arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes. Arrest warrants have also been requested against two Hamas leaders.
