Six Israeli hostages in Gaza have been confirmed dead by their families, hours after Israel’s army said it had found bodies in the territory.
The bodies of Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Ori Danino were brought back to Israel, the Israeli military said in a statement.
All were abducted by Hamas-led militants on 7 October, with their bodies found in an underground tunnel in southern Gaza on Saturday, according to the Israel Defence Forces.
“According to our initial estimation, they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists a short time before we reached them,” military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.
Hamas and its armed wing did not immediately comment on the accusations.
X
This content is provided by X, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable X cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to X cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow X cookies for this session only.
US President Joe Biden said he is “devastated and outraged” by the news.
“It is as tragic as it is reprehensible. Make no mistake, Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes,” he said.
“And we will keep working around the clock for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages.”
US vice president Kamala Harris and secretary of state Antony Blinken also shared their condolences with Mr Goldberg-Polin’s parents.
Advertisement
These six deaths mark a pivotal moment in Israel
The news that the bodies of six hostages have been recovered from Gaza has sent Israel into shock.
The names and faces of every hostage are familiar to all Israelis: there is collective national grief at the death of every one of them.
Everybody knows the story of how each hostage was taken on October 7th; they know their hobbies, jobs, past lives. Their desperate plight, and the suffering of their families praying for news, has become the fabric of society here.
The phrase “Free Hersh” is graffiti on walls or hangs from banners on virtually every street in the neighbourhoods close to where I live in Jerusalem.
Yellow ribbons are tied around lampposts, pillars, tree trunks, you name it.
Posters, with the photos of the 251 taken, are posted in shop windows, doctors surgeries, on billboards and through the walkway at Ben Gurion airport so even abroad, their fate is not forgotten.
These six young men and women were the living, some of the few who were supposed to come out alive and be reunited with their families after almost a year in captivity.
That hope is now extinguished. Confirmation of their deaths will reverberate hard; grief will quickly manifest into anger.
The IDF believes they were killed by Hamas, a conclusion likely based on forensic evidence of bullet traces, but many in Israel will blame Netanyahu.
It has now dawned on the hostage families and protestors that their prime minister is prioritising the military campaign over a hostage deal.
They might have long feared it, and chosen not to believe it, but the argument between Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday night was the final proof.
The two argued bitterly over Netanyahu’s insistence that Israeli forces remain in parts of Gaza during any truce and Gallant accused the prime minister of deliberately ruining ceasefire negotiations.
Gallant is supported by the military and security establishment. Netanyahu is supported by the extreme right in his cabinet.
Already this morning Yair Lapid, the former prime minster and official leader of the opposition, has tweeted in criticism of Netanyahu: “Instead of doing everything to bring them home, (he) is doing everything to stay in power.”
The massive protests, a fixture of Israeli society every Saturday evening, will now likely grow in size and anger.
However, despite their size and passion, they have so far failed to sway Netanyahu.
But the news of the six bodies is a pivotal moment here.
The protestors will no longer be shouting for a hostage deal, no longer pleading for the government to bring them home – they will be fighting to remove Netanyahu from power.
Mr Goldberg-Polin’s parents became perhaps the most high-profile relatives of hostages on the international stage, meeting with Mr Biden, Pope Francis and addressing the UN.
On 21 August, they addressed a hushed hall at the Democratic National Convention, where the crowd chanted: “Bring them home.”
A Hamas video in April showing Mr Goldberg-Polin speaking under duress sparked new protests in Israel urging the government to do more to secure his and others’ freedom.
Image: Hersh Goldberg-Polin
“With broken hearts, the Goldberg-Polin family is devastated to announce the death of their beloved son and brother, Hersh,” the family said in a statement.
“The family thanks you all for your love and support and asks for privacy at this time.”
Confirmation of each death was shared by Israel on X.
Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The family of Ms Yerushalmi said: “We share with great sorrow that our beloved Eden was murdered in Hamas captivity.”
Following news of the deaths, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog apologised to the families of the victims for “failing to bring them home safely”.
He then referenced the hostages that are still being held by Hamas. “The supreme covenant between the state and its citizens is to ensure their safety. We have the sacred and urgent mission to bring them home.”
A forum of hostage families called for a massive protest on Sunday, demanding a “complete halt of the country” to push for the implementation of a ceasefire and hostage release.
The war was triggered when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
At least 40,691 Palestinians have been killed and 94,060 injured in Israel’s subsequent military offensive in Gaza, the enclave’s Hamas-run health ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
Nine of a doctor’s 10 children have been killed in an Israeli missile strike on their home in Gaza, which also left her surviving son badly injured and her husband in a critical condition.
Warning: This article contains details of child deaths
Alaa Al Najjar, a paediatrician at Al Tahrir Clinic in the Nasser Medical Complex, was at work during the attack on her home, south of the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, on Friday.
Graphic footage shared by the Hamas-run Palestinian Civil Defence shows the bodies of at least seven small children being pulled from the rubble.
Rescuers can be seen battling fires and searching through a collapsed building, shouting out when they locate a body, before bringing the children out one by one and wrapping their remains in body bags.
In the footage, Dr Al Najjar’s husband, Hamdi Al Najjar, who is also a doctor, is put on to a stretcher and then carried to an ambulance.
The oldest of their children was only 12 years old, according to Dr Muneer Alboursh, the director general of Gaza’s health ministry, which is run by Hamas.
Image: Nine children were killed in the strike. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
“This is the reality our medical staff in Gaza endure. Words fall short in describing the pain,” he wrote in a social media post.
“In Gaza, it is not only healthcare workers who are targeted – Israel’s aggression goes further, wiping out entire families.”
Image: Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
British doctors describe ‘horrific’ and ‘unimaginable’ attack
Two British doctors working at Nasser Hospital described the attack as “horrific” and “unimaginable” for Dr Al Najjar.
Speaking in a video diary on Friday night, Dr Graeme Groom said his last patient of the day was Dr Al Najjar’s 11-year-old son, who was badly injured and “seemed much younger as we lifted him on to the operating table”.
Image: Hamdi Al Najjar, Dr Al Najjar’s husband who is also a doctor, was taken to hospital. Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
The strike “may or may not have been aimed at his father”, Dr Groom said, adding that the man had been left “very badly injured”.
Dr Victoria Rose said the family “lived opposite a petrol station, so I don’t know whether the bomb set off some massive fire”.
Image: Pic: Palestinian Civil Defence
‘No political or military connections’
Dr Groom added: “It is unimaginable for that poor woman, both of them are doctors here.
“The father was a physician at Nasser Hospital. He had no political and no military connections. He doesn’t seem to be prominent on social media, and yet his poor wife is the only uninjured one, who has the prospect of losing her husband.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:21
Nineteen of Gaza’s hospitals remain operational, all of them are overwhelmed with the number of patients and a lack of supplies
He said it was “a particularly sad day”, while Dr Rose added: “That is life in Gaza. That is the way it goes in Gaza.”
Sky News has approached the Israeli Defence Forces for comment.
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza began when the militant group stormed across the border into Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting 251 others.
Israel’s military response has flattened large areas of Gaza and killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.
The head of the UN has said Israel has only authorised for Gaza what amounts to a “teaspoon” of aid after at least 60 people died in overnight airstrikes.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said on Friday the supplies approved so far “amounts to a teaspoon of aid when a flood of assistance is required,” adding “the needs are massive and the obstacles are staggering”.
He warned that more people will die unless there is “rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access”.
Image: A woman at the site of an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:44
Gaza: ‘Loads of children with huge burns’
Israel says around 300 aid trucks have been allowed through since it lifted an 11-week blockade on Monday, but according to Mr Guterres, only about a third have been transported to warehouses within Gaza due to insecurity.
The IDF said 107 vehicles carrying flour, food, medical equipment and drugs were allowed through on Thursday.
Many of Gaza’s two million residents are at high risk of famine, experts have warned.
Meanwhile, at least 60 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes across Gaza overnight.
More on Gaza
Related Topics:
Ten people died in the southern city of Khan Younis, and deaths were also reported in the central town of Deir al-Balah and the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, according to the Nasser, Al-Aqsa and Al-Ahli hospitals where the bodies were brought.
Image: A body is carried out of rubble after an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
3:08
‘Almost everyone depends on aid’ in Gaza
The latest strikes came a day after two Israeli embassy workers were killed in Washington.
The suspect, named as 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, Illinois, told police he “did it for Gaza”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney of fuelling antisemitism following the shootings.
Mr Netanyahu also accused Sir Keir, Mr Macron and Mr Carney of siding with “mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers”.
Image: Palestinians search for casualties in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
But UK government minister Luke Pollard told Sky News on Friday morning he “doesn’t recognise” Mr Netanyahu’s accusation.
Earlier this week, Mr Netanyahu said he was recalling negotiators from the Qatari capital, Doha, after a week of ceasefire talks failed to bring results. A working team will remain.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251 others.
Follow The World
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
A woman has been arrested after 12 people were reportedly injured in a stabbing at Hamburg’s central train station in Germany.
An attacker armed with a knife targeted people on the platform between tracks 13 and 14, according to police.
They added that the suspect was a 39-year-old woman.
Image: Police at the scene. Pic: AP
Officers said they “believe she acted alone” and investigations into the stabbing are continuing.
There was no immediate information on a possible motive.
The fire service said six of the injured were in a life-threatening condition, three others were seriously hurt, and another three sustained minor injuries, news agency dpa reported.
The attack happened shortly after 6pm local time (5pm UK time) on Friday in front of a waiting train, regional public broadcaster NDR reported.
More on Germany
Related Topics:
A high-speed ICE train with its doors open could be seen at the platform after the incident.
Railway operator Deutsche Bahn said it was “deeply shocked” by what had happened.