Israeli officials announced late Saturday that the bodies of six Hamas-held hostages were recovered by Israeli forces in a tunnel under the Gaza city of Rafah, including that of Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
Israel has been operating around the clock in Rafah since it entered the area in early May.
The Israel Defense Forces in a statement identified the other recovered hostages as Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Master Sgt. Ori Danino. The military said all six had been killed shortly before the arrival of Israeli forces.
The bodies were found relatively close to where Kaid Farhan al-Alkadi, 52, from Rahat, was found last week.
Goldberg-Polin, who was among the hundreds of young people attending the Nova music festival in southern Israel on Oct. 7, was forced to hide in a bomb shelter with his friends as Hamas militants launched a surprise attack, killing more than 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages.
As Hamas terrorists threw grenades into the bunker, Goldberg-Polin rushed to throw them out, before his arm was blown off from the elbow down, according to a firsthand account from his friend. When the gunfire stopped, Goldberg-Polin was forcibly taken by Hamas gunmen who filmed the ordeal.
The first sign of life from Goldberg-Polin came in April, six months after his capture.
He was shown in a hostage video released by Hamas, with part of his left arm missing. Speaking in Hebrew, he said he had been “here for almost 200 days” and called on his parents to stay strong for him.
His parents have been among the most vocal of the hostage families pushing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek a deal securing their relatives’ return. They’ve also regularly met top US officials in Washington to press the case of the hostages.
Days before his confirmed death, Goldberg-Polin’s parents made an emotional plea for their son’s return at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
“This is a political convention. But needing our only son and all of the cherished hostages home is not a political issue. It is a humanitarian issue,” said Goldberg-Polin’s father Jon.
Goldberg-Polin’s family issued a statement early Sunday, hours after the Israeli army said it had located bodies in Gaza.
“With broken hearts, the Goldberg-Polin family is devastated to announce the death of their beloved son and brother, Hersh,” it said. “The family thanks you all for your love and support and asks for privacy at this time.”
“I am devastated and outraged,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “Hersh was among the innocents brutally attacked while attending a music festival for peace in Israel on October 7. He lost his arm helping friends and strangers during Hamas’ savage massacre.”
Netanyahu said Israel would hold Hamas accountable for killing the hostages in “cold blood,” and blamed the terrorist group for the stalled negotiations, noting that “whoever murders hostages doesn’t want a deal.”
Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq on Sunday blamed Israel and the Biden administration for the deaths of the six hostages, claiming Israel was unwilling to reach a deal and the United States had continued to support “the war of genocide” due to the country’s “bias” for Israel.
Protesters across Israel have called for a general strike to apply pressure to the government to secure a hostage deal.
Alternatively, many Israelis believe securing a hostage deal means allowing Hamas to remain in power. Israeli forces would be forced to leave Gaza and Hamas would immediately rebuild itself with the goal of attacking Israel again, as its leaders have said.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it struck a Hamas control center embedded in a school in Gaza City on Sunday.
The IDF said that the air force struck “Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command-and-control center embedded inside the area that previously served as the ‘Safad’ school in Gaza City.”
It said that the center was “used by Hamas terrorists to plan and carry out terror attacks against the IDF and the State of Israel.”
The IDF asserted that prior to the strike, “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians.”
More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the Hamas terror group’s health ministry in the enclave and which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its figures. Israel says approximately half of this number were terrorists.