ISRAEL FINDS BODIES OF 6 GAZA HOSTAGES
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HOSTAGE support groups condemned the Israeli government yesterday for not doing enough to save six found dead in Gaza.
Israel Defence Forces troops recovered their bodies in an underground tunnel in Rafah.
Hamas seized Hersh Goldberg-polin, 23, Ori Danino, 25, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Almog Sarusi, 27, and Alexander Lobanov, 33, at a music festival in southern Israel during the October 7 attacks.
Goldberg-polin, a US citizen, lost part of his left arm to a grenade in the attack.
The sixth, Carmel Gat, 40, was taken in farming community Be’eri.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would not rest until those responsible for their deaths are brought to justice. He said his Government was committed to a deal to free captives.
But some of the families of the six found dead demanded Mr
Netanyahu address the nation. They accused leaders of abandoning the hostages.
The Hostages Families Forum said they had been “murd-ered in the last few days, after surviving almost 11 months of abuse, torture and starvation”.
They added: “The delay in signing the deal led to their deaths.” US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators are trying to broker a ceasefire agreement for Hamas to free the 97 hostages it still holds in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
US President Joe Biden said he was “devastated and outraged” by the death of Mr Goldberg-polin.
Senior Hamas official Biden Izzat al-rishq insisted Israel was responsible for the deaths, claiming it has
refused to sign a ceasefire deal. Protests were held in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and across the country to call for a hostage release deal.
It comes as a Un-led multiday campaign to vaccinate 640,000 children against polio began in Gaza.