Israel recovers bodies of six captives held in Gaza
Al Jazeera
Families of the captives call on the government to sign a deal with Hamas to free about 100 others still in Gaza.
Israel’s military has announced that its troops have recovered the bodies of six captives, including a dual US national, from a tunnel in southern Gaza, as it continued its 11-month long, deadly assault on Palestinian enclave.
More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched war on Gaza on October 7 following an attack led by Palestinian group Hamas. About 250 people were taken captive following the October 7 attacks in southern Israel. The coastal enclave has been turned into rubble amid non-stop bombardment as Israel repeatedly refused to agree to a ceasefire deal to free the captives.
The military said on Sunday that their remains were recovered “from an underground tunnel in the Rafah area” and returned to Israel where they were formally identified. It claimed that the captives were killed not long before their bodies were recovered.
The captives were identified as Almog Sarusi, Alex Lobanov, Carmel Gat, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi and Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
A forum of captives’ families, who have been critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the issue, called for a massive protest later on Sunday, demanding a “complete halt of the country” to push for the implementation of a ceasefire and release of the remaining captives.
