Six hostages killed in Gaza just before rescue; polio campaign starts

TEL AVIV, Israel (TNS) — The bodies of six Israeli hostages who were killed by their Palestinian Islamist Hamas captors shortly before the Israeli army found their bodies, were recovered from the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said on Sunday.

The six bodies were found in an underground tunnel in the Rafah area in southern Gaza and transferred to Israel, the Israel Defense Forces said on Telegram.

They include the body of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen and arguably the best-known hostage. His parents had recently spoken at the U.S. Democratic National convention in Chicago, pleading for his release.

The other hostages were: Alexander Lobanov, 32, Almog Sarusi, 27, Ori Danino, 25, and two women — Carmel Gat, 40, and Eden Yerushalmi, 24.

They were kidnapped during the Hamas-led terrorist attack in southern Israel on October 7, the IDF said.

“According to our initial assessment, they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them,” said IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari. A Hamas spokesman, however, said that the hostages had been killed in Israeli bombardment.

It was not possible to verify either statement.

Another army spokesman said the investigation was ongoing. A 52-year-old Bedouin hostage was freed alive from a tunnel about 1 kilometer away on Tuesday, the IDF said.

U.S. President Joe Biden, in a statement released by the White House that focused on U.S. citizen Goldberg-Polin, said he is “devastated and outraged” by his killing and has worked “tirelessly” for his return. Biden said “Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes.”

Political fallout from killings

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of systematically sabotaging efforts to reach a cease-fire.

“Whoever murders hostages — does not want a deal,” Netanyahu said in a video message.

He vowed to settle the score.

“You will pay the price. We will not rest, nor will be silent. We will pursue you, we will find you and we will settle accounts with you,” he said.

Netanyahu vowed to do everything possible to prevent Hamas from killing other hostages, saying efforts to free those remaining are continuing.

But he blamed Hamas, saying that since December, the Islamist organization has refused to engage in real negotiations. He accused Hamas of rejecting several proposals he said Israel had agreed to.

Critics in Israel, however, accuse Netanyahu of undermining the efforts to reach a cease-fire for domestic political and personal reasons.

“If we wait until we have captured the last Hamas fighter, there will be no more living hostages left to rescue,” the relative of a hostage who is still missing told the Israeli TV station Channel 13.

“Netanyahu can strike a deal to free them. Of course it’s Hamas that kidnapped and murdered the hostages, no one has any doubt about that, but the prime minister can save them — but he won’t, he’s abandoning them.”

Gallant opposes Netanyahu on corridor control

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the security Cabinet’s decision a few days ago to keep troops between Egypt and Gaza — a major sticking point in the negotiations — must be reversed and he called for an emergency Cabinet meeting.

“It is too late for the hostages who were murdered in cold blood. We must bring back the hostages that are still being held by Hamas,” Gallant wrote on X.

According to media reports, a heated exchange took place during the Cabinet meeting between Netanyahu and Gallant, who reportedly accused Netanyahu of prioritizing military control over the Gaza-Egypt border at the expense of efforts to free Israeli hostages.

He allegedly stated that Netanyahu’s decision might as well condemn all the hostages to death.

He backed Netanyahu on the repercussions for Hamas, though saying Israel would settle the score with all “Hamas leaders and murderers.”

The security Cabinet had voted earlier this week to keep Israeli troops stationed in the Philadelphi Corridor, a 14-kilometer stretch that has been a major sticking point in the ongoing indirect negotiations with Hamas regarding a potential cease-fire.

Israel argues that several Hamas tunnels allowing for weapons smuggling between Egypt and Gaza are underneath the corridor, a claim Egypt has denied.

Polio vaccination campaign begins in Gaza Strip

Meanwhile, a campaign to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of children against the polio virus official began on Sunday in the embattled Gaza Strip, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported.

“Children in Gaza are receiving much-needed polio vaccines today,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X.

“Ultimately, the best vaccine for these children is peace.”

Halima Baraka, a 39-year-old mother of four, came to one of the vaccination centers in Deir al-Balah on Sunday morning.

“I came here to protect my children from this disease,” she said, pointing to the cramped living conditions of internally displaced people in tent camps. “The situation is miserable, we have no cleaning products, no healthy food for our children and there is rubbish everywhere.”

Sally Saidam from the Nuseirat refugee neighborhood was also there to have four of her six children vaccinated. Her message to the international community: “Enough with death and destruction, you must help us stop this war.”

The Israeli army promised temporary and localized pauses in fighting to ensure the safety of staff and families coming for the vaccine, the WHO said. Netanyahu emphasized that the planned breaks in fighting were not intended to be a cease-fire in the traditional sense.

Apart from vaccine centers, mobile vaccination teams are also on the road to reach families who are unable to go to the vaccination centers, the WHO said.

The aim is to immunize 640,000 children under the age of 10.