Israel recovers bodies of six hostages in Gaza, puts pressure on Netanyahu Reuters

Emily Rose and Nidal Al Mugrabi

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel has found the bodies of six hostages in a Gaza tunnel and said its forces killed them just before arriving at the scene, sparking protests by Israelis on Sunday and plans for trade union strikes over a failed attempt to rescue them.

Thousands of Israelis demonstrated in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu do more to bring the remaining hostages home from Gaza, and Labor party leaders on Monday called on workers to refrain from working.

The Israeli army said it had retrieved bodies from underground in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, as a polio vaccination campaign begins in the war-torn Palestinian territories and violence escalates in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli military spokesman Maj. Gen. Daniel Hagari told reporters that the bodies of Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Porin, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarsi and Ori Danino had been returned to Israel.

An Israeli Health Ministry spokesman said forensic tests had revealed that the men had been “killed by Hamas terrorists, who shot them multiple times at close range” 48 to 72 hours earlier.

Amid growing calls to end the nearly 11-month war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip with an agreement that includes a ceasefire and the release of hostages, Netanyahu said Israel would not rest until it caught those responsible.

“Whoever kills the hostages doesn’t want a deal,” he said.

A senior Hamas official said Israel was responsible for the deaths because it refused to sign a ceasefire.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu is responsible for the killing of Israeli prisoners,” Hamas leader Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters. “Israel should choose between Prime Minister Netanyahu and a deal.”

Amid growing public anger over the fate of the hostages, Arnon Bardavid, head of the Israeli Trade Union Federation, called for a general strike on Monday to pressure the government to sign the agreement, and announced a closure of Ben-Gurion Airport, Israel’s main air transport hub, from 8 a.m. (5 a.m. GMT).

“An agreement is more important than anything else,” he said. Defense Minister Yoav Galant, a frequent clasher with Netanyahu, also called for a deal, while opposition leader and former prime minister Yair Lapid urged people to take part in demonstrations in Tel Aviv.

In Jerusalem, protesters blocked roads and demonstrated in front of the prime minister’s office, with some waving Israeli flags along the road in tribute to the six hostages. Aerial footage showed protesters holding flags with pictures of the slain hostages blocking a major highway in Tel Aviv.

The Tel Aviv municipality and other municipalities across Israel planned a half-day strike on Monday in solidarity with the hostages and their families.

On October 7, a shock Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel took about 250 hostages, triggering Israel’s retaliatory war in Gaza.

The six deaths leave 101 Israeli and foreign prisoners still in Gaza, although Israel believes about a third of them have died and the fate of the rest is unknown.

The Hostage Families Forum called on Prime Minister Netanyahu to take responsibility and explain why he is blocking an agreement.

“They were all killed in recent days after enduring approximately 11 months of ill-treatment, torture and starvation in Hamas captivity. Delays in signing the agreement led to their deaths and those of many other hostages,” the statement said.

“Devastating and infuriating”

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office said he had spoken to the family of Alexander Lobanov, whose body was recovered, and apologized and expressed his “deep sadness.”

But the family of another hostage, Carmel Gatto, said they refused to speak to Netanyahu and instead called on Israelis to join the protests.

“Let’s take to the streets and lock down the country until we get everyone back. We can still save it,” Gatto’s cousin, Gil Dickman, wrote to X.

US President Joe Biden said he was “shocked and outraged” by the news of the deaths of 23-year-old Israeli-American Goldberg Pollin and the other hostages.

“Hamas leaders will pay a price for these crimes, and we will continue to work day and night to reach an agreement to secure the release of the remaining hostages,” he said in a statement.

Earlier, he told reporters in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, he “remained optimistic” about a ceasefire agreement.

Negotiations brokered by the United States, Qatar and Egypt have been halted and restarted for months but have so far failed to produce an agreement despite increased U.S. pressure and multiple senior visits to the region.

Polio vaccination

The two sides agreed to suspend fighting in the Gaza Strip for at least eight hours each day from Sunday to Tuesday to launch a major operation to vaccinate 640,000 children against polio.

The campaign was launched following confirmation last month that an infant had been partially paralyzed by type 2 poliovirus – the first case in the region in 25 years.

Israeli forces continue to fight Hamas-led militants in several parts of the Gaza Strip, including targeting a suspected Hamas command center in a former school in Gaza City. The Palestinian Civil Emergency Services said 11 people were killed and medics said many others were wounded.

Medical sources said Israeli airstrikes killed two Palestinians and wounded 10 in Khan Yunis, bringing the total number of deaths in the Gaza Strip for the day to 27.

According to an Israeli tally, about 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas attack on October 7. Since then, at least 40,738 Palestinians have been killed and 94,154 wounded in Israeli military attacks on Gaza, according to the Gaza Strip Ministry of Health.

The fighting has increased tensions across the region and in the occupied West Bank, and Israeli authorities said three Israeli police officers were killed when their vehicle was hit by gunfire near the city of Hebron.

Hundreds of Israeli troops have been conducting raids across the West Bank since Wednesday, one of the first major operations in the region in months that Israel says is aimed at rooting out Islamic extremism.

Commenting from the scene of the attack, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a hardline member of Israel’s security cabinet, called for tougher measures against Palestinian militants.

Hamas praised the attack but did not claim responsibility, calling it a “natural response to the massacres and carnage in the Gaza Strip.”

Palestinian militants said their fighters were facing off against Israeli forces with machine guns and explosive devices in the tense West Bank city of Jenin.