IDF Recovers Bodies of Six Israeli Hostages Murdered by Hamas in Gaza
Murdered hostages identified as Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lubnov, Carmel Gat and Almog Sarusi.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Saturday recovered the bodies of six hostages, including two women, who were murdered by Hamas terrorists in Gaza captivity.
The bodies were located inside a terror tunnel in the Hamas stronghold of Rafah. The military retrieved the bodies “from an underground tunnel in the Rafah area in the Gaza Strip and returned them to Israeli territory,” the IDF disclosed in a statement Saturday night.
The bodies of Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Master Sergeant Ori Danino were found and recovered yesterday.
They were all taken hostage on October 7 and were murdered by the Hamas terrorist organization while in captivity… pic.twitter.com/9VWYHNX0Ks
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) September 1, 2024
The murdered hostages were identified as Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Ori Danino, 25, Alex Lubnov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Almog Sarusi, 27. All of these hostages were taken captive by Hamas terrorists on October 7.
The body of hostage Eden Yerushalmi has been brought back to Israel for burial.
In her last phone call on Oct 7, Eden told emergency services: "I'm running, please stay with me, I'm begging you."
The operator told her to hide and asked: "Do you see them around you? Try to… pic.twitter.com/vKRdoO1z7K
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) September 1, 2024
The Times of Israel reported the details of the IDF operation that led the discovery of the bodies:
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the six were “brutally murdered” by Hamas shortly before troops arrived — possibly only a day or two before they were found.
“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 in a press conference.
“Their bodies were found during the fighting in Rafah, in a tunnel, about a kilometer away from the tunnel from which we rescued Farhan al-Qadi a few days ago,” he said.
The IDF said that it had not had the exact location of the hostages but had indications of a general area where the six could be held, and was therefore operating carefully in the area.
“Since Farhan was found, troops were given an emphasis on operating carefully even more than usual, because of the understanding that additional hostages may be in the area. We did not have information on the exact location of the hostages,” Hagari said.
Troops began to search a tunnel complex on Saturday and found the hostages, dead, in the afternoon. Their bodies were extracted from Gaza overnight and brought to Israel for identification.
Heartbreaking news
– the body of Hersh Goldberg Polin, an American citizen, has been recovered from Gaza.
May his memory always be a blessing to the loving family he left behind. pic.twitter.com/W9TP2mPCrk
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) September 1, 2024
The 23-year-old Israeli-American hostage, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was among the murdered hostages discovered by the IDF.
The CBS News reported the Goldberg-Polin family’s response to the grim discovery:
Goldberg-Polin’s family issued a statement early Sunday, hours after the Israeli army said it had located bodies in Gaza.
“With broken hearts, the Goldberg-Polin family is devastated to announce the death of their beloved son and brother, Hersh,” it said. “The family thanks you all for your love and support and asks for privacy at this time.”
Goldberg-Polin was one of the best-known hostages as his parents had met with world leaders and pressed relentlessly for their help. Earlier this month, they addressed the Democratic National Convention, where the crowd chanted “bring them home.”
Rachel Goldberg-Polin with her only son, Hersh. pic.twitter.com/EsvGmCjBut
— Yashar Ali
(@yashar) September 1, 2024
The Israeli armed forces were searching for the remaining hostages in operations across Gaza. “The IDF and Israeli security forces are operating with all means to bring home all the hostages as fast as possible,” the Israeli military assured Saturday night,
The family of hostage Carmel Gat (39), who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be'eri, has confirmed her death. Carmel was murdered by Hams terrorists in cold blood. HYD pic.twitter.com/5SZ3SpoX3j
— Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) September 1, 2024
The six bodies were recovered from the same area where the IDF on Tuesday rescued the 52-year-old Bedouin-Israeli hostage, Qaid Farhan Alkadi, from a Hamas terror tunnel.
On August 20, the Israeli Special Forces retrieved the bodies of six hostages from the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis. Many of those bodies contained bullet wounds, Israeli forensic investigators confirmed.
As news spread that 6 hostages had been found murdered, the staff and patients at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital stood in silence to honor their memory.
Ichilov Hospital pic.twitter.com/mAWpumMFcY
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) September 1, 2024
People across Israel gathered in the memory of murdered hostages. “The occupational therapy team and employees of the Loewenstein Rehabilitation Medical Center in Raanana gather in memory of Carmel Gat, who was an occupational therapy student there, and in memory of the five other hostages who were murdered in Hamas captivity,” The Times of Israel reported.
Almog Sarusi’s mother: "How we hoped and prayed that we would get to see you again"
@N12News pic.twitter.com/ds2B8vM0wC
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) September 1, 2024
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Comments
Isn’t it most likely that they were shot when Israel was trying to rescue them? Instead of allowing a rescue.
The value of a dead hostage is pretty small so they’d otherwise keep them alive.
If Israel had gone into Rachel when they wanted to instead of being threatened by Biden and Kamala-lama-ding dong that weapons and support would be removed or with held then we may have had a very different outcome; as of course the hostages were in Rafah. Suggesting Israel shot their own people shows once again how ignorant many are of this situation and how willing people are to suck up Iranian propaganda.
Of course I meant Rafah but whatever , they are gone is all that matters , may their memory be a blessing.
I wish Legal Insurrection had a nice civilized “block” feature so I wouldn’t have to see your inane Jew-hating comments anymore.
A thumbs down in the arena would be fitting,
I have performed my own personal psychological study of our friend rhhardin. Check out his personal blog and be prepared to be surprised. https://www.blogger.com/profile/06901742898653890646
God, your a dick
Really
I certainly don’t go out my way to read your nonsense comments, although I recall seeing varying degrees of offensive stupidity. But blaming the IDF for the acts of these subhuman animals has to be in your top ten.
Showing your low IQ once again.
I have performed my own personal psychological study of our friend rhhardin. Check out his personal blog and be prepared to be surprised. https://www.blogger.com/profile/06901742898653890646
He has said on this blog that he was a computational physicist, which would require a very high IQ. However, it would require little in terms of skills necessary to maintain relationships with other human beings on a personal level. You can see that he writes without emotion. I have come to feel sorry for him.
Which exposes the IQ argument some like to make as the be all end all.
The failure to understand humanity, not to mention to recognize the obvious, makes these alleged smart people dumb. Then they hide it by pretending to be superior.
The problem is, like here, when it involves bigotry, under the guise of intellectual discourse.
“The value of a dead hostage is pretty small so they’d otherwise keep them alive.”
Is this POV the result of your vast experience in holding people hostage?
Or does it come more from your complete lack of understanding of Hamas’ hatred of Jews?
I went to give it another downvote and somehow it came out as an upvote. Rest assured that was not my intention and this insufferable douchebag still has zero upvotes for this rancid comment.
And your point is? Don’t try to rescue them? Ask nicely to have them returned? Surrender to the enemy?
It is likely they were shot to prevent the Israelis from garnering accolades in the press for a successful rescue. From a Hamas perspective, the recovery of a dead hostage is better than the recovery of a live one.
You could be right, however you are using sane and rational thought. These animals are neither sane nor rational.
Neither is rhhardin. And Biden’s supposed deal gives Hamas the same credit for releasing the body of a murdered hostage (even murdered minutes before the exchange) as a live hostage, so even dead hostages result in the release of numerous convicted terrorists murderers.
With all due respect, they are quite sane and they are quite rational. How do I know? Because they are far closer to accomplishing their goals than they were a year ago.
To wit, they’ve gained, not lost, support from academics and from politicians the world over
They’ve lost zero $$$, in fact many including the USA Government gives them millions in cash and food and etc.
They’ve lost zero land. If memory serves, after the smoke cleared, the aggressors in WWI and in WWII lost land. Isn’t that how international aggressors have always been treated?
Plus—Hamas/Iran has damaged the economies of “the West” and its psychology.
And—they promise publicly that for the indefinite future they will do October 7th-attacks big and small throughout the world , over and over again.
So again, respectfully, hard to make the case for insanity or irrational
It seems clear to me that Hamas, or more importantly the minds behind Hamas (Iran? Qatar?), has from the beginning intended to sacrifice Gaza to the greater Palestinian cause. October 7 turned out to be a brutal hostage taking raid designed to draw massive retaliation. Why else put a baby in an oven to roast? Nobody cares about Gaza except deluded American college students who believe they are in spiritual solidarity with fundamentalists who stone to death promiscuous women and homosexual men. Is the Gazan War a success for the anti-Israel cause? Yes. So far. But beware the boomerang. Success has bred arrogance, and arrogance, over-reaching. In this conflict between civilization and barbarism, I vote for civilization. The barbarians will eventually be pounded into the earth, as they deserve.
And JB from the beach is pretending to be irate.
I don’t think anyone with at least a reasonable amount of intelligence is surprised by this. It is just amazing that almost 2-dozen Americans can be killed in one of the worst terrorist attacks in history with an additional eight or so held hostage (or worse) for almost a year and Joe Biden & Kamala Harris can escape any scrutiny by the American media. In fact, most of the American media has covered the story from the perspective that Biden has done too much to help Israel. It’s tough for a nation to endure when the levers of power inside that nation are as self-loathing as ours clearly are. They’re not just rooting for our collapse, they’re engineering it.
Exactly
It is not amazing once you accept that both the current American Uni-Party and the American media have contempt for Americans and admire [and wish to emulate] terrorists.
Subotai Bahadur
May God hold them in the palm of His hand, and for Israel to complete what is necessary so that this horror is never repeated, whatever form that may take.
May G-d avenge their blood.
How sad. I have nothing more to say except that my sentiments are in alignment with yours.
One of the murdered hostages HY”D is the cousin of the lady my wife and I take our alterations to.
One question
Where is God?
Job found his answer, but it took longer than a blog post, so I am not sure I can provide an adequate answer.
Joseph said that what was meant for evil the Almighty used for good, and he was satisfied.
The Psalmists and the prophets say that those who suffer in service to the Almighty will see the fruit of their suffering and be satisfied.
Jesus said He was God incarnate (I and the Father are One) and that He took the wrath for injustice that we all deserve upon Himself.
Peter, Jude, and John especially say He is coming back and all tears will be dried, except for those who despise His coming.
I think that is with the Spirit’s help (I think) about as good as a reply that I can make in a brief moment.
Maybe Rebel Girl or Kemberley or someone else can do better.
An eternal question. This is another chapter in the continuing fight between good and evil. Maybe the point is to choose wisely, and to recognize the difference.
As it has always been:
Once an enemy loses its fear of you,
good luck trying to defend your property, your family, your friends……..
If ever there was lip service, it surrounds the reaction by America to the killing of Americans by Hamas. Shameful. If we had showed a strong front behind Israel, this would have been over, and more likely the hostages have fared better.
The trail of dead Americans abandoned by Harris-Biden is long. Remember what the Romans promised and did if a citizen was killed in a town not Roman.
The cartels do it today
I see one of the hostages was an American Citizen. Too bad he didn’t have a functional President on his side. Instead he was threatening to cut off weapons shipments to Israel, our ally. What a shame. May these people rest in peace. Keep going Israel until the last terrorist is dead….God Bless Israel and the IDF.
biden’s comment on the dead American was typical worthless blather.
Will family’s get that their loved ones would never be permitted to be free ever again? Negotiating would be pointless and always end up in their deaths?
Very sad but can’t see any other reasoning.
There’s one way to stop this. When a recently-killed hostage is found dead, try those found holding him or her on the spot, execute them, and leave their bodies.
The Biden/Harris administration has sanctioned Israeli civilians and even military units for actions they deem contrary to American standards of conduct.
Hamas leaders in Qatar are responsible for the murder of 33 Americans and the kidnapping of at least 6 more (1 murdered this week).
These scum are reportedly worth billions. Seize their assets and freeze their accounts. Apply all the tools withing our security apparatus and financial power to wipe out all funds held or used by Hamas.
Go ahead and broker a cease fire agreement and get the remaining hostages or their bodies home. Then wait, probably not long, for Hamas to start shooting bullets and missiles again. When (not if, when) they violate the cease fire, there will be ample reason to flatten Gaza.
Let the savages be savages. They can’t do anything else.
.
And how do we recapture the 100s of convicted murderers released in exchange? And have many thousands will be killers or maimed or kidnapped in the future by those released?
Sinwar, the architect of Oct 8, was just one of the 1,000+ terrorists released in exchange for Gilad Shalit. Like many of the others released with him, he went right back to murder. How many times do we need to repeat that lesson?
You would give Hamas, and the evil forces behind them, a unilateral victory to celebrate world wide in the belief that you can always get them tomorrow. The obvious flaw in your argument is that they know to get hostages first, and re-start hostilities afterwards. Duh!!!