Bodies of six hostages found in Gaza Strip

Photo: Abir Sultan Agence France-Presse “I would like to tell you how much I regret and ask you for forgiveness for not having succeeded in bringing Sasha back alive,” Mr. Netanyahu told Alexander Lobanov's parents by telephone.

Agence France-Presse in the Gaza Strip

Published at 9:51

• Middle East

The bodies of six hostages taken during the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel have been found in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said Sunday, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatening the Palestinian movement with “settling the score.”

In the occupied West Bank, where the Israeli army is continuing a large-scale operation against armed groups for the fifth day, three Israeli police officers were killed in an “armed attack,” according to the police.

A large-scale anti-polio campaign has also been officially launched in the Gaza Strip, where a war has been going on for almost 11 months between Israel and Hamas. The UN has announced “humanitarian pauses” in this regard, but its details remain uncertain.

“The army and the Shin Bet [internal security] located yesterday and recovered the bodies of hostages Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino from a tunnel in the Rafah area,” the Israeli army announced on Sunday.

Mr Biden had earlier announced the discovery of the six bodies, including that of Israeli-American Goldberg-Polin, saying he was “devastated”. The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, also said he was “horrified” and the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, “shocked”.

Photo: Hostages Families Forum via Agence France-Presse Undated portraits showing the hostages (from top left) Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lubanov, Carmel Gat, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi and Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

“Pardon”

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the hostages were “killed in cold blood by Hamas just before we got to them.”

“I would like to express my regret and ask your forgiveness for not having managed to bring Sasha back alive,” Netanyahu told Alexander Lobanov's parents by telephone.

He also said that “he who kills hostages does not want an agreement” on a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. “We will pursue you, we will catch you and we will settle your score,” he said to Hamas.

A senior member of the Islamist movement, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the hostages had been “killed by gunfire and shelling by the Israeli occupier” and that some “of them” were on the list of hostages to be released that Hamas had approved.

At least four hostages are to be buried in the afternoon in several cities in Israel.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid and families of hostages called for a general strike in Israel on Monday to force the government to reach an agreement to release the remaining hostages.

During the Hamas attack on October 7, which triggered the war in the Gaza Strip, 251 people were kidnapped in Israel and taken to Gaza and 97 are still being held in Gaza, including 33 declared dead by the army.

This vast attack resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.

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Israelis killed in West Bank

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, a movement it describes as terrorist, like the United States and the European Union.

The Israeli reprisals have left at least 40,738 dead in the Gaza Strip, according to Hamas’s health ministry, causing a humanitarian and health disaster and displaced almost all of the 2.4 million inhabitants. According to the UN, the majority of the dead were women and minors.

At the same time, Israel is continuing a vast operation described as “anti-terrorist” which began on Wednesday in the north of the occupied West Bank, which has sparked protests from the international community.

In the south of this territory, three Israeli police officers, including a woman, were killed on Sunday near a checkpoint in an “armed attack”, according to the commander of the Israeli police.

This attack has not been claimed but Hamas saw it as “a natural response to the massacres of the Palestinian people”.

Israeli bulldozers were destroying streets in Jenin on Sunday, one of the cities targeted by the Israeli operation in the north of the West Bank, an AFP photographer noted.

At least 22 Palestinians, mostly fighters, have been killed by the Israeli army in the West Bank since Wednesday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. All were “terrorists,” the Israeli army said.

Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, and Islamic Jihad, another armed group, said at least 14 of the dead were fighting in their ranks.

“Peace, the best vaccine”

In the Gaza Strip, a polio vaccination campaign began Sunday morning, with the aim of vaccinating more than 640,000 children under the age of ten. It currently concerns the centre of the territory and will include two other phases for the other sectors.

Louise Wateridge, spokesperson for UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), spoke in the afternoon of a “success” with “thousands of children vaccinated”.

On Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that Israel had agreed to “humanitarian pauses” for the campaign.

Denying “reports of a general ceasefire” to allow the campaign, Mr. Netanyahu’s office said that Israel would allow “only a humanitarian corridor.”

WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that for Gaza’s children, “the best vaccine […] is peace.”

Elsewhere in the Gaza Strip, the Civil Defense reported two dead and six injured in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City.

Pope Francis called on Sunday for an immediate ceasefire, the release of the hostages and aid to the people of Gaza “where so many diseases are spreading.”

Israeli army says it has identified the bodies of six hostages found in Gaza

The Israeli army announced Sunday that it had identified the bodies of six hostages brought back from Gaza to Israel, including two women and four men, one Israeli-American and one Israeli-Russian.

“The army and the Shin Bet,” Israel's domestic intelligence service, “located [Saturday] and recovered the bodies of hostages Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino from a tunnel in the Rafah area,” in the southern Gaza Strip, the army announced in a statement.

Five of them — aged 23 to 32 — had been abducted at the Nova techno music festival by Hamas commandos during the deadly attack on October 7. The attack resulted in the deaths of a total of 1,205 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.

Of the 251 people abducted that day, 97 are still being held in Gaza, including 33 declared dead by the army.

The Israeli reprisals in Gaza have left at least 40,691 dead, according to the Hamas government's Health Ministry, and caused a humanitarian and health disaster in the besieged territory. According to the UN, the majority of the dead are women and minors.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says the six hostages whose remains were brought back were alive when they were abducted and then “killed in cold blood by Hamas.”

Evidence of life had emerged for these hostages, including a video of Hersh Goldberg-Polin in April shot by his captors.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt are still trying to wrest a deal for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. So far, no end seems in sight as the war nears its twelfth month.

“A deal for the return of the hostages has been on the table for two months. Without the delays, sabotage and pretexts, those whose deaths we learned about this morning would certainly still be alive,” the Hostage Families Forum raged on Sunday.

“It is time to bring our hostages home, to help the living recover and bury the dead with dignity,” the group continued in a statement.

The Forum said that Alexander Lobanov had become a father while he was in captivity, to a child who is now five months old.

“The heart of the entire nation is broken into a thousand pieces,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said, according to a statement from his office.

“We will continue to fight relentlessly against the criminal terrorist organization Hamas,” Herzog added.

Agence France-Presse, Jerusalem