The Israeli army confirmed on Sunday that it had recovered the bodies of six hostages from an underground tunnel in the Rafah area, southern Gaza Strip, and confirmed his return to Israeli territory.
The deceased, all taken hostage on October 7 during the Hamas attack, were identified as Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino.
On Saturday, around eleven o’clock in the evening, the Army confirmed that it had found “several corpses during the fighting” in Gaza and assured that “troops continue to operate in the area and carry out a process of extraction and identification.”
It is only now being made public that the bodies found belong to four men and two women, which reduced the total number of captives on October 7 to 98.
“A deal for the return of the hostages has been on the table for more than two months. Without the delays, sabotage and excuses, those whose deaths we learned about this morning would probably still be alive,” reacted to this news. The Forum of Hostages and Missing Families, which announced demonstrations this Sunday in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Among the deceased, many young people in their twentiesis American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 24, born in California, whose family confirmed his death in a Facebook post. U.S. President Joe Biden offered his condolences in a statement.
On October 7, Hersh attended the music festival NOVAwhere he was kidnapped and injured, he was forced to use a tourniquet and had one of his hands amputated, as shown in videos of the attack.
Just four months ago, in a propaganda video released by Hamas on April 24, Hersh was seen in good healthreading on camera a message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not doing enough to free the hostages.
His family is also one of the most active in the fight for the return of the captives. In November, his mother Rachel was among 12 relatives who met Pope Francis at the Vatican, and both parents have always been very explicit about the urgency of reaching a truce agreement.
“Hersh, we work day and night and we will never stop.”Goldberg-Polin reiterated on August 29, when a convoy with relatives of the hostages went to the Gaza border to demand the release of their loved ones.
