Protesters call for hostage deal after six deaths

Protesters in Tel Aviv on Sunday demanded the Israeli government make a deal to bring home the hostages who remain in the Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Forces reported earlier on Sunday that Israeli soldiers recovered the bodies of six deceased hostages from Gaza.

The Israeli military and the hostage advocacy group Bring Them Home Now both report that there are 101 remaining hostages in Gaza. Hamas seized about 250 hostages during its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

On Sunday, protesters put up wreaths commemorating the hostages in Tel Aviv, writing the word sorry on each wreath. Bring Them Home Now issued a statement on Monday claiming the hostages were abandoned to die. The group called for more protests to force the Israeli government to reach a hostage release deal with Hamas.

Who were the hostages? The IDF and Bring Them Home Now both identified the deceased as:

• 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin

• 24-year-old Eden Yerushalmi

• 25-year-old Ori Danino

• 26-year-old Almog Sarusi

• 32-year-old Alex Lobanov

• 40-year-old Carmel Gat

One of the hostages, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was an American citizen, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Sunday. The IDF reported that Hamas captured all six hostages on Oct. 7, when Palestinian militants surged across the Israel-Gaza border and killed 1,200 people. Officials are working to bring the remaining hostages home, IDF spokesman Nadav Shoshani said on Sunday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised Hamas leaders would pay the price for killing the hostages. He told Hamas leaders that Israel would soon settle accounts with them, in a statement issued by his office.

Did Netanyahu say anything about negotiations? Netanyahu told Israeli citizens that his government has been trying to negotiate with Hamas for months now, but the terrorist leaders have refused to make a deal allowing for the release of hostages. Whoever murders hostages does not want a deal, Netanyahu said.

Like Netanyahu, President Biden also blamed Hamas for the hostages’ deaths. He added that he had worked tirelessly for the release of the hostages and promised Hamas would pay for the deaths of Goldberg-Polin and the others.

Dig deeper: Read Lauren Canterberry’s report in The Sift about how Israel rescued a 52-year-old hostage from captivity in Gaza last week.