By Ari Rabinovitch and Stephanie Kelly
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in southern Gaza where they were apparently killed not long before Israeli troops reached them, the military said on Sunday.
“According to our initial estimation, they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists a short time before we reached them,” military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters in a briefing.
The bodies of Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino had been found underground in the city of Rafah and returned to Israel, he said.
“The heart of an entire nation is shattered to pieces,” said President Isaac Herzog, whose post is largely ceremonial. “I embrace their families with all my heart, and apologize for failing to bring them home safely.”
There was no immediate comment from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under pressure at home and abroad to reach a ceasefire deal that includes the release of remaining hostages.
U.S. President Joe Biden, who has closely followed the fate of the hostages seized on Oct. 7, said the six included Israeli American Goldberg-Polin.
“I am devastated and outraged,” Biden said in a statement issued by the White House.
Senior Hamas official Izzat El-Reshiq said that Israel, in its refusal to sign a ceasefire deal, was responsible for the deaths.
Days earlier, hostage Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a member of the Bedouin community in southern Israel, was rescued about a kilometre away, Israel’s Hagari said.
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.
The six recovered bodies were from about 250 hostages taken in Hamas’ killing spree through southern Israel on Oct. 7 that sparked the war in Gaza. About 1,200 people were killed in the assault, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, at least 40,691 Palestinians have been killed and 94,060 injured in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, the enclave’s health ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
Sunday’s news was likely to spur further protests by Israelis demanding a hostage release deal.
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.
Goldberg-Polin, captured at a music festival near Gaza, appeared in a video released by Hamas in late April.
“He had just turned 23. He planned to travel the world,” Biden said. His parents, Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin, “have been courageous, wise, and steadfast, even as they have endured the unimaginable,” he said.
“They have been relentless and irrepressible champions of their son and of all the hostages held in unconscionable conditions. I admire them and grieve with them more deeply than words can express,” the president said.
Biden vowed that “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.”
Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement, “I strongly condemn Hamas’ continued brutality, and so must the entire world.” Harris, the Democratic candidate running to succeed Biden, said she and he would never waver in their commitment to free the Americans and all those held hostage in Gaza.
Earlier, speaking to reporters in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Biden said he was “still optimistic” about a ceasefire deal to stop the conflict.
“I think we’re on the verge of having an agreement,” he said. “It’s time this war ended.”
Biden added that “people are continuing to meet.”
“We think we can close the deal, they’ve all said they agree on the principles.”
(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem and Stephanie Kelly in Rehoboth Beach; Additional reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru, James Mackenzie in Jerusalem and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo; Editing by William Mallard and Mark Potter)
