He army Israeli announced on Sunday that recovered the corpses of six hostagess captured by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised “settle accounts“with the Palestinian Islamist movement, at war with Israel.
The remains of the hostages They were found on Saturday “in an underground tunnel in the Rafah area” in the south of the Palestinian territory and “transferred to Israel where they were formally identified,” said a military statement.
“Those who kill hostages do not want an agreement” for a truce in Gaza, Netanyahu said in a statement, in which he warned, referring to Hamas leaders: “We will hunt them down, we will catch them and we will settle accounts.”
Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallantsaid the hostages were “murdered in cold blood by Hamas.”
The American president, Joe Bidensaid that among the bodies recovered was that of Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin and said he was “devastated.”
EU foreign minister Josep Borrell said he was “horrified” and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “shocked”.
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Goldberg-Polin, 23, was one of the 251 hostages taken by Hamas militants in its October 7 attack in southern Israel, which sparked the current war in Gaza.
The other five hostages recovered were identified by the Israeli army as Carmel Cat, Eden Jerusalem, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and the sergeant Ori Harmful.
“I would like to tell you how sorry I am and ask for your forgiveness for not being able to bring Sasha back alive,” Netanyahu told Lobanov’s parents by telephone.
A command of the Palestinian Islamist movementwho spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Several hostages died “by gunfire and shelling by the Israeli occupiers” and that some of them were on the organisation’s list of people who would be released during the first phase, if a ceasefire agreement is reached.
The trade union center of Israel Histadrut called for a “general strike” in Israel to force the government to reach an agreement to release the last hostages. Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid and the families of the hostages also called for a strike.
Dead in the West Bank
He army Israeli launched a major operation on Wednesday in West Bank busy, with bombings and armored raids in Jenin, Nablus, Tubas, Tulkarem, and in Camps of refugeeswhere the groups armed those fighting Israel have a strong presence.
According to the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health, Israeli army killed at least 24 Palestinians in West Bank since Wednesday.
Israeli police said three of their officers, two men and a woman, were killed Sunday “in a shootout” following a Attack on Tarkumiya checkpointnear Hebron.
The Israeli army said in the afternoon that it had killed the attacker responsible for the shooting.
The attack was not claimed, but Hamas considered it “a natural response to the massacres of the Palestinian people.”
“The best vaccine, peace”
In Gaza, despite the ravages of the war between Israeli forces and Hamas, a polio vaccination campaign.
“It is absolutely necessary that they be vaccinated,” Ghadir Haji told AFP as the family waited in line for vaccinations at the clinic in the Al Zawayda refugee camp.
Louise Wateridge, a spokeswoman for the agency UN for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA)said in the afternoon that the campaign is being a “success” with “thousands of children vaccinated.”
The World Health Organization said Israel had agreed to implement “humanitarian pauses” of at least three days in several parts of the country to facilitate the campaign.
Netanyahu, however, clarified that these “pauses” do not constitute “a ceasefire.”
The general director of the World Health Organization (WHO)Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, for his part, estimated that, for the children of Gaza, “the best vaccine (…) is peace.”
The objective is immunize to more than 640 thousand children under 10 years old.
The war in Loopwhich plunged the 2.4 million inhabitants of that territory in a situation humanitarian catastrophicwas triggered on October 7.
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That day, the militiamen Hamas Islamists 1,199 people were killedmostly civilians, in southern Israel, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.
In response, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and launched a vast retaliatory offensive that has already left 40,738 dead in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.