The recovery of the bodies of six hostages kidnapped on October 7 has sparked outrage, frustration, and sadness in Israel. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducted the operation in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, where the bodies of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Ori Danino, 25, Alex Lubnov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Almog Sarusi, 27, were found. Goldberg-Polin was an Israeli-American citizen.
IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari reported that the hostages were “brutally murdered” by Hamas terrorists shortly before the IDF reached them, possibly within one or two days. The operation was another daring tunnel mission to locate hostages in the conflict zone.
“According to an initial assessment… they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists a short while before we reached them. They were abducted alive on the morning of October 7 by the Hamas terror group,” Hagari said at a press briefing. Their bodies were discovered in a tunnel in Rafah, around a kilometer from where another hostage, Farhan al-Qadi, was rescued just days earlier.
Farhan al-Qadi’s rescue was a rare moment of hope amid the grim news of more than one hundred hostages still believed to be held by Hamas. He had been