By Susan Miller, Kim Hjelmgaard and John Bacon, USA TODAY,
8 days ago
Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin was among six hostages held by Hamas-led militants whose bodies were recovered by Israel's military as thousands of Israelis on Sunday protested their government's failed efforts to negotiate a deal to free scores of captives still held in Gaza.
The bodies were found in a tunnel under the city of Rafah, near the border with Egypt. The Hostages Families Forum, a group representing the families, said they had been "murdered in the last few days, after surviving almost 11 months of abuse, torture and starvation in Hamas captivity."
The Israeli health ministry said they appeared to have been shot at close range two to three days before the bodies were recovered. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized for not bringing them home alive.
"We saw the inconceivable brutality of the Hamas murderers on October 7, and we have seen it again in the tunnels under Rafah," Netanyahu said in a statement.
Izzat Al-Rishq, a member of the Hamas Political Bureau, blamed Israel and the U.S. for the hostage deaths: "The one who bears responsibility ... is the occupation, which insists on continuing the war of genocide and evading reaching a cease-fire agreement, and the U.S. administration for its bias, support and complicity in this aggression."
People attend a demonstration calling for the immediate return of hostages held in Gaza outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office in Jerusalem on Sept. 1, 2024. Ronen Zvulun, REUTERS
Developments:
∎ Israel's military identified the other recovered hostages as Carmel Gat, 40, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Alexander Lobanov, 32, Almog Sarusi, 27, and Master Sgt. Ori Danino, 25.
∎ Despite the outrage over the hostage killings, a pause in fighting in areas of Gaza began to allow the start of a complex operation to vaccinate 640,000 children against polio. The pauses are scheduled to last for at least eight hours daily, for three days in central Gaza, then three in southern Gaza, then three in northern Gaza. Each regional pause could be extended one day if needed.
The Hostage Family Forum called for street demonstrations across Israel to protest the government's failure to negotiate freedom for the captives.
Israeli media estimated that up to 500,000 people gathered for demonstrations in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and other cities, according to Reuters. Demonstrators in Jerusalem blocked streets and protested outside the prime minister's residence.
Aerial footage showed protestors holding flags with pictures of the killed hostages on Tel Aviv's main highway and television footage showed police directing water canons at demonstrators who blocked roads.
The Jerusalem Post reported that 29 protestors were arrested on Sunday night for "disturbing public order, attacking officers, and rioting with brutality" on the highway and a demonstration area.
The head of Israel's Histadrut labor union, Arnon Bar-David, called on all civilian workers to join a nationwide strike Monday and said Ben Gurion airport, Israel's main air transport hub, would be closed after 8 a.m. Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai said the city will join the nationwide strike until noon, saying in a social media post that the Israeli government "abandoned" the hostages.
"But the State of Israel is us," Huldai said. "As a sign of solidarity with the abductees and their families, the municipality of Tel Aviv-Jaffa joins the strike. ... We will allow all female and male employees to go out and support the families' struggle. Take to the streets."
Jerusalem is among cities that have declined to join the stoppage. Israel Gantz, the head of the West Bank’s Mateh Binyamin Regional Council, said a strike could weaken the country. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich urged the government to seek a court injunction to cancel the nationwide strike.
Goldberg-Polin, 23, a native of California, was among more than 200 people captured by militants in the Oct. 7 attack on Israeli border communities in which almost 1,200 people also died. He was taken at gunpoint from the Nova music festival. During the ordeal part of his arm was blown off by a grenade, his friends previously told USA TODAY.
"With broken hearts, the Goldberg-Polin family is devastated to announce the death of their beloved son and brother, Hersh. The family thanks you all for your love and support and asks for privacy at this time,” the family said in a statement.
The White House said national security adviser Jake Sullivan would hold a virtual meeting Sunday with the families of American hostages.
Netanyahu political foe Benny Gantz called for the "absolute failure" government to be replaced. Gantz lauded the Israeli troops for their efforts to free hostages but accused the prime minister of "playing a game" that costs human lives. Netanyahu, Gantz said, "hesitates, is afraid and plays for time due to political considerations" instead of making a deal to bring the hostage home.
"The prime minister should protect the abductees and the citizens of Israel and not his coalition controlled by extremists,' Gantz said in a statement. "The abductees die, the children of the north are exiled, and Israeli society is falling apart."
President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin, parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, to offer condolences. Biden.issued a statement saying he was "devastated and outraged" by the news and paid tribute to Goldberg-Polin.
"He had planned to travel the world," Biden said. "I have gotten to know his parents, Jon and Rachel. They have been courageous, wise, and steadfast, even as they have endured the unimaginable. They have been relentless and irrepressible champions of their son and of all the hostages held in unconscionable conditions."
Vice President Kamala Harris called Hamas an "evil terrorist organization" and said in a statement that the militant group now has "even more American blood on its hands." Hamas must be eliminated and not allowed to control Gaza, she said.
"I strongly condemn Hamas’ continued brutality, and so must the entire world," the statement said. "From its massacre of 1,200 people to sexual violence, taking of hostages and these murders, Hamas’ depravity is evident and horrifying."
Netanyahu expressed "deep regret" to Oxana and Grigory Lobanov, the parents of Alexander Lobanov, that Israeli forces were unable to rescue their son and the other hostages.
"I would like to tell you how much I regret and request forgiveness for not succeeding in bringing Sasha back alive," Netanyahu told the couple in phone call, according to a readout provided by his office. Netanyahu planned to speak Sunday to the families of all the hostages whose bodies were recovered in the tunnel, although Israel's Channel 12 reported that two of the families refused to take Netanyahu's calls.
A militant who shot three Israeli police officers in the occupied West Bank on Sunday was later killed by commandos, the Israeli military said. Muhammad al-Aswad, 31, was affiliated with the Palestinian Authority’s Fatah movement, and previously served in the authority’s presidential guard, the military said. The Israeli military has stepped up attacks in the West Bank in recent weeks, citing an increase in militant activity there.
A little-known armed group calling itself the Khalil al-Rahman Brigade claimed responsibility for the shootings. Hamas praised the attack as a “natural response” to the war in Gaza and called for more.
The discovery of the bodies comes as Israel continues to press its withering assault on Gaza under intense international pressure for a cease-fire. At least 40,691 Palestinians have been killed and 94,060 injured in Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip, according to Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
In recent days, Israel has also been stepping up its military operations in northern cities in the West Bank , prompting fears that the war in Gaza could be spreading to other Palestinian territories. Looming over that, is the specter of full-fledged war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran, which backs the militant group.
On Saturday, Israeli strikes killed at least 48 people in the Gaza Strip, as clashes took place in central and southern areas of the enclave ahead of the planned start of a polio vaccination campaign .
Rachel Goldberg and Jonathan Polin, parents of Gaza hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, attend a demonstration by families of the hostages taken captive in the Gaza Strip near Kibbutz Nirim in southern Israel on Aug. 29, 2024 JACK GUEZ, AFP via Getty Images
On Saturday, Biden, speaking to reporters in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, said he was “still optimistic,” that a truce could be reached to end the conflict. “I think we’re on the verge of having an agreement,” he said. “It’s time this war ended.”
Biden added that “people are continuing to meet. We think we can close the deal, they've all said they agree on the principles."
Netanyahu appeared to downplay the prospect of a deal Sunday.
"In recent days, as Israel has been holding intensive negotiations with the mediator in a supreme effort to reach a deal, Hamas is continuing to steadfastly refuse all proposals. Even worse, at the exact same time, it murdered six of our hostages. Whoever murders hostages − does not want a deal," he said.
The discovery of the bodies also comes one week after another hostage taken during the Oct. 7 Hamas rampage was freed after a "complex" rescue operation in southern Gaza. Hagari, Israeli's military spokesman, said Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a member of Israel's Arab Bedouin minority, was alone when rescued from an underground tunnel thanks to extensive intelligence on the location.
Hagari said that the hostages recovered Sunday were found about a mile from where Farhan Alkadi was located.
The Hostages Families Forum said that over the past few months, eight hostages have been rescued alive through Israel's military operations. In November, a deal between Israel and Hamas saw 105 hostages released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Israel believes that 101 hostages remain in Gaza including at least 27 who are presumed dead. With Goldberg-Polin's death, it means there are now seven American hostages still held in Gaza .
Goldberg-Polin's parents had recently spoken about their son during an appearance at the Democratic National Convention. They shared details about his passion for music, the Hapoel Jerusalem soccer team and his sense of humor. They also recounted the heroism of his best friend whom he attended the Nova music festival with.
As the Hamas attack unfolded, Goldberg-Polin, his friend Aner Shapira and more than two dozen other festival goers took refuge in a bomb shelter. Shapira, 22, an off-duty solider, tried to protect them by standing in the doorway and catching and then throwing back multiple grenades that the attackers were lobbing in their direction. He threw back six grenades in all. The seventh fatally wounded him.
"He stood there as a wall for the others. This was our man. Not for himself, but for the others," Liat Netzer, the mother of a friend of Shapira's told USA TODAY at his funeral in Jerusalem in October.
Netzer's husband, Yaakov, said that Goldberg-Polin was wounded in the hand during the grenade attack that killed Shapira, but he could walk and that other friends attending the festival saw him being led away by Hamas with several others and lifted into the back of a pickup.
The first definitive proof Goldberg-Polin survived despite being badly injured only surfaced in April when Hamas released an undated video in which he appears sitting in a chair, addressing the camera. His hair is cropped short and as he speaks he gestures occasionally with his left arm, which shows a healed stump where his hand should be.
In the video, which runs for just under three minutes, Goldberg-Polin criticizes Netanyahu for not reaching a cease-fire deal with Hamas and tells his parents that he misses and loves them very much.
"I expect and hope to see you very soon after all this tragedy is over," he said.
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