Politics Israeli army: Six dead hostages recovered in Gaza
The Israeli army has recovered the bodies of six hostages in the Gaza Strip. The military officially announced this on its Telegram channel in the early morning. The previous evening, the army had initially announced the discovery of several bodies, without giving further details.
After hours of checking the identity of the bodies, there is now certainty. "We are all waking up to the terrible news that six more dead hostages have been found, killed by Hamas," wrote the German ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, on the X platform.
The six victims were found in an underground tunnel in the Rafah area in the south of the embattled Gaza Strip and were transferred to Israel, the army announced. All six victims had been taken hostage during the terrorist attack by the Islamist Hamas on October 7 last year and kidnapped in the Gaza Strip. "According to our initial assessment, they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them," said Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari in the morning.
The victims are four men - Hersh Goldberg-Polin (23), Alexander Lobanov (32), Almog Sarusi (27) and Ori Danino (25) - and two women - Carmel Gat (40) and Eden Yerushalmi (24). According to the forum of relatives of the abductees, at least five of the six victims were abducted on October 7 from the Nova music festival in the Negev desert, which was taking place near the border with the Gaza Strip.
On that day, terrorists from Hamas and other groups abducted a total of more than 250 people from Israel into the sealed-off coastal area. During a week-long ceasefire at the end of November, Hamas released 105 hostages. In return, Israel released 240 Palestinian prisoners from jails. In some cases, hostages were freed by the Israeli army - sometimes at a high cost in blood for the Palestinian civilian population during these military operations, for which Israel is criticized internationally just as much as for the Gaza war itself. It is not known how many of the hostages remaining in Gaza are still alive.
Prospects for success of the talks in Cairo unclear
Whether a further agreement can be reached on a ceasefire and the release of abductees remains to be seen. For some time now, the USA, Egypt and Qatar have been holding mediation talks in Cairo on an agreement providing for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages. However, the talks are deadlocked. Israel and Hamas are refusing to negotiate directly with the other side.
The main point of contention is currently the question of how long Israeli troops may remain stationed at the Philadelphi Corridor on the border with Egypt. Israel's security cabinet recently decided to maintain control of the corridor.
