The bodies of six Israeli hostages, one of whom is American, have been recovered from Gaza tunnels
Israel said on Sunday it had recovered the bodies of six hostages in Gaza. Among the bodies recovered was a well-known Israeli-American youth.
The Israeli army said six people were killed shortly before its forces arrived. Mass protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were called after their bodies were recovered.
Many Israelis hold him responsible for failing to bring back alive those who signed a deal with Hamas to end the 10-month war. Negotiations for such a deal have been ongoing for months.
Netanyahu said Hamas must be held accountable for the "cold-blooded" killing of the hostages. He blamed Hamas for the stalled talks, saying "those who kill hostages don't really want a deal."
Hamas took 23-year-old Harsh Goldberg-Pollin and four other hostages from a music festival in southern Israel during the October 7 attack in Israel.
Joe Biden's response
Goldberg-Paulin is from Berkeley, California. A video released by Hamas in April showed him alive but missing part of his left arm from a grenade. In the aftermath, renewed protests erupted in Israel calling on the government to do more to free the hostages.
US President Joe Biden, whom Goldberg-Paulin's parents have met in the past, said he was "shocked and outraged."
"It's so sad and so disgusting," he said. “Hamas leaders will pay for their crimes. And we will work day and night to free the rest of the hostages.”
The bodies were found about a kilometer inside a tunnel in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Last week, another hostage, Quaid Farhan Alkadi (52), was rescued alive from here.
Hamas proposal
Hamas has offered the release of hostages in exchange for an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and the release of many Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.
A senior Hamas official, Izzat al-Rishq, said the hostages would still be alive if Israel had accepted a US-brokered cease-fire deal in July, which Hamas accepted.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has said he will continue fighting until Hamas is completely destroyed. He said military pressure was needed to bring back the hostages.
Palestinian militants led by Hamas attacked military bases and several settlements in southern Israel on October 7 last year, killing about 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages.
Israeli counterattacks have killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities. Most of Gaza's 23 million residents have been repeatedly displaced and the besieged land is now in the grip of a humanitarian disaster.