The Israeli military said the remains of six hostages have been recovered from an underground tunnel
Gaza:
Israel announced on Sunday that its forces had found six dead hostages in a Gaza tunnel, while Israeli police said a “shooting attack” in the occupied West Bank left three officers dead.
The deadly shooting near Hebron added to rising violence in the West Bank, which is separated from Gaza by Israeli territory and where Israel has carried out a large-scale military operation since Wednesday that has sparked international concern.
The besieged Gaza Strip would see “humanitarian pauses” in the nearly eleven-month war between Israel and Hamas to facilitate a mass polio vaccination, which a health official told AFP had begun.
The Israeli military said the remains of six hostages were recovered on Saturday “from an underground tunnel in the Rafah area” in southern Gaza and formally identified in Israel.
They were named as Carmel Gat, who was taken from a kibbutz community near the Gaza border, as well as Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Ori Danino, American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin and Russian-Israeli Alexander Lobanov, who were captured by Palestinians . agents of a music festival site.
Military spokesman Daniel Hagari said all six were “kidnapped alive on the morning of October 7” and “brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them.”
US President Joe Biden said he was “devastated and outraged” by their deaths, but told reporters he was “still optimistic” that a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages could be reached.
“It’s time for this war to end,” said Biden, whose government has been involved in brokering a ceasefire along with Qatar and Egypt.
EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said he was “shocked by the murder” of the hostages, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer expressed shock at their “senseless” killing.
The six were among 251 hostages captured during the October 7 Hamas attack that sparked the ongoing war. 97 of them remain trapped in Gaza, including 33 who the army says are dead. The scores were released during a weeklong negotiated truce in November.
Campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said a negotiated “deal for the return of the hostages” was urgently needed.
“Without the delays, sabotage and excuses” of months of mediation efforts, the six hostages “would probably still be alive.”
The families called for a nationwide general strike from Sunday evening to force the government to reach a deal to secure the release of those still held.
A senior Hamas official told AFP on condition of anonymity that “some” of the six had been “approved” for release in a possible hostage-prisoner swap as part of a yet-to-be-negotiated deal.
‘Ask for forgiveness’
Critics in Israel have accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prolonging the war for political gain.
In an address to Lobanov’s parents on Sunday, Netanyahu said: “I would like to tell you how sorry I am and ask for forgiveness for failing to bring Sasha back alive.”
Qatar-based Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq said the six were “killed by Zionist (Israeli) bombings,” an accusation the military denied.
Netanyahu blamed Hamas leaders “who are killing hostages and don’t want a deal,” vowing to “settle the score with them.”
Hamas’ attack on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.
The Israeli offensive has killed at least 40,738 people in Gaza, according to the Israeli Health Ministry. According to the UN rights office, most of the dead are women and children.
The fighting has devastated Gaza, repeatedly displacing most of its 2.4 million residents and creating a humanitarian crisis. Water, sanitation and medical facilities have been destroyed, contributing to the spread of preventable diseases.
After the first confirmed polio case in 25 years, a health official in Gaza said vaccinations began on Saturday ahead of a wider campaign.
The World Health Organization said Israel has agreed to a series of three-day “humanitarian pauses” to facilitate the campaign, which aims to reach about 640,000 children.
It was formally launched on Sunday in three health centers in central Gaza, said Yasser Shaaban, director of Al-Awda Hospital.
“We hope that this vaccination campaign for children will be peaceful,” Shaaban said, noting that “many drones” were flying overhead.
Louise Wateridge, spokeswoman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, later said that almost 2,000 children had initially been vaccinated on Sunday.
But she added that they were concerned about later: “If the bombing continues after 2 p.m., this will obviously affect the vaccination campaign… The only way to do this is a ceasefire.”
Wateridge later reported an attack in the Nuseirat area.
The civil protection agency said an Israeli airstrike killed two people in Gaza City, further north, where an AFP correspondent also reported shelling early Sunday.
Violence in the West Bank
Israeli forces and Palestinian officers fought in the West Bank on Sunday, after five days of major coordinated raids that the Israeli military has described as “counter-terrorism operations.”
Three people were killed in a ‘shooting attack’ near the Tarqumiya checkpoint in the southern West Bank’s Hebron area on Sunday, Israel’s emergency medical service said. According to the police, they were all members of the force.
The military said multiple attackers may have been involved.
In the northern West Bank, an AFP photographer spotted Israeli bulldozers in Jenin’s city center, a day after a local official said soldiers had destroyed most streets and power and water had been cut in the neighboring refugee camp.
At least 22 Palestinians, including 14 claimed by surgical groups, have been killed by the Israeli army since simultaneous attacks on the northern West Bank began on Wednesday.
A 20-year-old soldier was killed on Saturday.
The United Nations said on Wednesday that at least 637 Palestinians have been killed in the territory by Israeli forces or settlers since the start of the Gaza war.
According to official figures, twenty-three Israelis, including soldiers, were killed in Palestinian attacks or during army operations during the same period.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)