Six hostages, including one American, were found brutally murdered by Hamas by the IDF overnight while in Rafah. They were recovered from a tunnel.
Each of the hostages were shot in the back of the head and it’s believed that they were shot in the last few days.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Ori Danino were their names and Goldberg-Polin was the American.
Here’s more from JPOST:
The bodies of hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Ori Danino were found in the Gaza Strip, the IDF said on Sunday morning.
The IDF retrieved the bodies of the hostages from a tunnel under the city of Rafah in Gaza.
They were likely slaughtered by Hamas shortly before the IDF got to them in Rafah.
The bodies were found only one kilometer from where Kaid Farhan al-Alkadi, age 52, from Rahat, was found last week.
Since Alkadi was found, the IDF put out instructions to be extra careful in the area, but it is possible that Hamas killed the six knowing that the military was close by and that the hostages might be taken by the IDF alive.
Earlier in the night, prior to the announcement, the IDF had not been able to identify the bodies.
IDF sources did say that if the bodies were indeed those of hostages, they were not killed by any recent fight with Hamas in the area since the military did not use force nearby.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum blames Netanyahu for their deaths.
Bill Ackman had this to say on X and it’s very much worth reading…
Consider that Hamas chose to execute an American hostage with a bullet to the back of his head during the last two or three days (along with five other hostages) whose parents just spoke at the DNC less than two weeks ago, while hostage negotiations were underway.
Consider that the U.S. strategy over the last 330 days has been to pressure Israel to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, including through the withholding of weapons from Israel, and by periodically leaking our failure to support our ally to the media in the midst of hostage negotiations.
Consider what pressure if any the U.S. has brought to bear on Hamas and our friends in the region who harbor Hamas’ leadership?
Why? Why has our leadership adopted this failed strategy?
Because POTUS Joe Biden (who has been on vacation for 16 days) and Kamala Harris, who also just skipped a ceremony at Arlington Cemetery to honor 13 fallen soldiers from the failed Afghanistan withdrawal, along with their advisers in the DNC, believe they will lose important votes in certain key swing states and from Hamas supporters on campuses.
It has been proven time and time again that the only thing that terrorists understand is brute force. Rather than pressure Israel, the United States should have put more pressure on our other allies in the region to help, and done everything we can to help Israel defeat Hamas and recover the hostages, but unfortunately this was not good politics for Biden/Harris and some of their supporters.
By being weak and lacking resolve, we failed our captured, now dead citizens, and the other hostages and their families while emboldening terrorists around the world.
The result:
It has become much less safe to be an American since October 7th because of our failed leadership.
It has become much less safe to be a member of the free world since October 7th because of our failed leadership.
We are in desperate need for a change in leadership so our enemies once again fear the United States and think twice before they act against us and/or our allies.
The time has come.
It didn’t take long for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to turn on Israel after they saw the ugly protests around the country. They knew they needed the votes of the Hamas supporters in their party and that’s exactly who they pandered to.
Netanyahu said all along that the only way to free the hostages was to continue their defensive war against Hamas and force the terrorists to surrender. But Biden refused to listen and pressured Israel just as Ackman suggested. And now this is the terrible result.