Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. File | Photo credit: AP
israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed regret over Six hostages dieHe said these killings prove that Hamas does not want a ceasefire agreement.
Mr Netanyahu said on Sunday (September 1, 2024) that he was shocked to hear about the death of the hostages.
He accused Hamas of killing them “mercilessly” and said Israel would hold the group accountable. He also accused the group of killing them “mercilessly.” Ongoing ceasefire efforts,
“Anyone who kills hostages doesn’t want a deal,” he said.
Critics in Israel have accused Mr Netanyahu of delaying ceasefire talks – a charge he denies.
Israel said on Sunday (September 1, 2024) that it had recovered the bodies of six hostages in Gaza, including a young Israeli-American man who became one of the best-known captives held by Hamas as his parents met with world leaders and pressed for his release, including at the Democratic convention last month.
The army said all six men were killed shortly before Israeli forces arrived to rescue them. Their recovery sparked mass protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who many of the hostages’ families and the wider Israeli public accused of failing to bring them back alive as part of a deal struck with Hamas to end the 10-month-old war. Negotiations over such a deal dragged on for months.
The military identified the other hostages as Ori Danino, 25, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Almog Sarousi, 27, and Alexander Lobanov, 33, who were also taken from the music festival. The sixth, Carmel Gat, 40, was abducted from the nearby farming community of Beri.
It said the bodies were recovered from a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, about a kilometre from the spot where another hostage, Qaid Farhan al-Qadi, 52, was rescued alive last week.
Mr Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed and has said military pressure is needed to get the hostages back. Channel 12 He reportedly had a heated exchange with his own Defence Minister, Yoav Galant, at a Security Cabinet meeting late Thursday in which he accused him of prioritising control of a strategic corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border over the lives of hostages – a key sticking point in the talks.
Cabinet reportedly voted in favour of staying in the corridor despite objections from Mr Gallant, who said it would prevent a mortgage deal from happening.
Also read: The war on Gaza and America’s contradictory role
“On behalf of the State of Israel, I hold their families close to my heart and ask them for forgiveness,” Mr Galant said after the hostages’ remains were recovered on Sunday (September 1, 2024). He later called on the cabinet to reverse its decision. There was no immediate comment from Mr Netanyahu.
Several Palestinians were killed in two previous Israeli operations to free the hostages. Hamas says several hostages have been killed in Israeli air strikes and rescue efforts. Israeli troops mistakenly killed three Israelis who escaped captivity in December.
Also read: Israel’s deadly attack on West Bank continues for fourth day
Hamas-led militants swept into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, attacking army bases and several farming communities, killing nearly 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, though they did not say how many were fighters or civilians. It has also displaced most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, often several times, and has plunged the besieged territory into a humanitarian disaster.