Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Sunday to escalate the fight against Hamas after the Israeli military recovered the bodies of six hostages in Gaza. The grim discovery has sparked widespread protests across Israel and calls for an immediate ceasefire.
According to Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesperson, the hostages were found dead in a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. “According to our initial estimation, they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists a short time before we reached them,” Hagari told reporters in a briefing.
Netanyahu, in a strongly worded statement, declared, “Those who kill hostages do not want an agreement,” referring to potential ceasefire negotiations. He directly addressed Hamas leaders, saying, “We will hunt you down, we will catch you and we will settle the score.”
The Prime Minister also accused Hamas of carrying out a shooting attack earlier Sunday that killed three police officers near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, although Hamas has not claimed responsibility for this incident.
In response to the hostage deaths, thousands of Israelis took to the streets by evening, chanting “Now! Now!” and demanding that Netanyahu reach a ceasefire agreement with Hamas to secure the release of remaining hostages and end the nearly 11-month conflict in Gaza.
Adding to the pressure on the government, Israel’s largest trade union, the Histadrut, has called for a general strike on Monday. The strike is expected to disrupt major sectors of the economy, including banking, healthcare, and operations at the country’s main airport.
The Israeli military continues to search tunnels near where the hostage bodies were found, just a kilometer from where another hostage, Qaid Farhan Alkadi, was recently rescued alive. Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told CNN that these search efforts are ongoing.
U.S. President Joe Biden expressed his outrage at the killings, confirming that one of the deceased hostages, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was an Israeli-American. Biden stated, “Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes. And we will keep working around the clock for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages.”
The ongoing conflict, which began with Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and led to the capture of about 250 hostages, has resulted in nearly 41,000 Palestinian deaths in Gaza, according to Gaza health officials. Israel maintains that this number includes several thousand Hamas combatants.
As tensions escalate, Netanyahu faces mounting pressure both domestically and internationally to reach a ceasefire agreement. Hamas has offered to release the remaining hostages in exchange for an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli forces, and the release of Palestinian prisoners. However, negotiations remain at an impasse, with both sides accusing the other of obstructing progress towards peace.
Source:bbc.com
