Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed regret on Sunday (1/9) for the deaths of six hostages, saying the killings proved Hamas does not want a ceasefire deal.
“Whoever murders hostages does not want an agreement”
Netanyahu said Sunday he was saddened to hear the news of the hostages’ deaths. He also accused Hamas of killing them in cold blood and said Israel would hold Hamas responsible for the development, while accusing the Palestinian organization of stifling ongoing efforts. ceasefire. “Anyone who murders hostages does not want an agreement,” said the Israeli prime minister.
It is noted that in the past critics in Israel have accused Netanyahu of dragging his feet in the ceasefire talks – a charge he continues to deny.
Hamas blames Israel for the dead hostages
A senior Hamas official, Itzat el-Reshiq, said today that Israel, by refusing to sign a cease-fire agreement, is responsible for the deaths of Israeli hostages.
Earlier this morning, the Israeli military announced it had recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip where they appeared to have been killed not long before Israeli soldiers reached them.
“According to our initial assessment, they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them,” army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Haggari told reporters.
The bodies of Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarousi and Ori Danino were found underground in the town of Rafah and returned to Israel, the Israeli military spokesman said.
The relatives of the hostages are against Netanyahu
At the same time, relatives of the hostages are lashing out at Netanyahu, noting that the hostages’ deaths are the “direct result” of his “torpedoing” of the proposed ceasefire agreements and his demand that Israel’s military maintain control of the Philadelphia Corridor.
In particular, the Forum of Families of Hostages and Missing Persons said in a statement that the six hostages, whose bodies were recovered in Gaza, would still be alive if the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had reached an agreement with Hamas for their release.
“Had it not been for the torpedoing, excuses and spin, the hostages whose deaths we learned of this morning would likely be alive,” the forum said in a post on X.
What we know about the six bodies of Israeli hostages
Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages in Gaza, including that of Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Paulin, US President Joe Biden said Saturday night (Sunday morning Greek time).
“Earlier today [σ.σ. Σάββατο]in a tunnel under the town of Rafah, Israeli forces recovered the bodies of six hostages held by Hamas,” Biden said in a statement issued by the White House. “I am devastated and outraged.”
The Israeli military said in a statement issued early this morning that the bodies of Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Paulin, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarousi and Ori Danino had been transferred to Israel.
“According to our initial assessment, they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them,” army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters.
A few days earlier, Kaid Farhan Alqadi, a member of southern Israel’s Bedouin community, was rescued about a kilometer away, the military said.
After Arkadi was found, Israeli soldiers were ordered to be more vigilant because of the possibility that other hostages were in the area, but there was no specific information on where the hostages were, Haggari said.
Hamas and its armed wing have not yet commented on the accusations.
Five of the six hostages – aged 23 to 32 – were seized at the tecno Nova music festival by Hamas militants during the deadly October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,205 people, most of them civilians, according to a count of AFP based on official data.
Of the 251 people abducted, 97 are still in Gaza, 33 of whom have been declared dead by the army.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallad maintains that the six hostages were alive when they were kidnapped by Hamas and then “murdered in cold blood by Hamas.”
The United States, Qatar and Egypt are still trying to reach a ceasefire agreement and the release of hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
“A deal to return the hostages has been on the table for two months. Without the delays, sabotage and pretexts, those whose deaths we learned this morning would certainly still be alive,” the Hostage Families Forum said today.
“It is time to bring our hostages back home so we can help the living recover and give the dead the burial they deserve,” the Forum continued in its statement.
The Forum clarifies that Alexander Lomanov had fathered a child who is now five months old during his captivity.
“The heart of the entire nation is breaking 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.
At least 40,691 Palestinians have been killed and 94,060 wounded during the Israeli army’s offensive in the Gaza Strip since October 7, the enclave’s health ministry announced yesterday, Saturday.
The war broke out when the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 more hostage, according to Israeli figures.
The military operation in Jenin continued
On Saturday, clashes broke out between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters in the occupied West Bank as Israel continued its military operation in the city of Jenin. Hundreds of Israeli soldiers have been carrying out raids since Wednesday in one of their biggest operations in the West Bank in months.
Goldberg-Paulin, who was taken hostage during a music festival near Gaza, appeared in a video released by Hamas in late April.
“He had just turned 23. He was planning to travel around the world,” Biden said. His parents, Rachel Goldberg and John Palin, “were courageous, wise and steadfast even as they endured what they could not have imagined,” Biden said.
“They fought relentlessly for their son and all the hostages who were being held in unacceptable conditions. I admire them and mourn with them more deeply than words can express,” the president said.
The Biden reaction
Biden pledged that “the leaders of Hamas will pay for their crimes. And we will continue to work around the clock for an agreement that will secure the release of the remaining hostages.”
The vice president Kamala Harris it said in a statement that it strongly condemns Hamas’ continued brutality, and so must the whole world. Harris, the Democratic nominee to succeed Biden, said she and the president would remain unwavering in their commitment to free Americans and all hostages held in Gaza.
Speaking to reporters earlier in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Biden said he remained “optimistic” that a ceasefire agreement would be reached to end the war.
“I think we’re close to having a deal,” he said. “It’s time for this war to end.”
Biden added that “meetings are still taking place.”
“I think we can close the deal, everyone has said they agree on the principles” that will govern it, the American president said.
Source: Associated Press, APE – ERT, ertnews.gr
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