Hamas: Six captives found dead in Gaza killed in Israeli airstrikes

Gaza (Quds News Network)- Senior Hamas official Izzat al-Risheq said the six Israeli captives found dead in a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday were killed in Israeli airstrikes.

Al-Risheq also blamed the United States for its “bias, support and partnership” in the 11-month war on the besieged territory. One of the captives was a dual US-Israeli citizen, while another was Russian-Israeli.

The official stated that Hamas cares more about the lives of its prisoners than Biden does, emphasizing that the group had accepted his proposal and the UN Security Council resolution.

Netanyahu rejected the proposal and the resolution and his administration conceded to the PM’s demands, which were intended to obstruct reaching an agreement to maintain his power, al-Risheq said.

The Israeli military announced it recovered the bodies of six Israeli captives held in Gaza. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, claimed that Hamas “brutally murdered” the six captives whose bodies were found in Rafah “a short while before we reached them”.

“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 in a news conference.

The Times of Israel, citing the Israeli military, also reported that the six were killed about a day or two before they were found.

They included that of three men and three women. They are Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Ori Danino, 25, Alex Lubnov, 32, Almog Sarusi, 25, and Carmel Gat, 40.

Axios, citing Israeli officials, said it is still unclear when and how the captives were killed but some of them were still alive in recent months.

The recovery operation took place on Saturday afternoon local time but it took many hours to officially identify the bodies and notify the families, Axios reported.

On Saturday, the Israeli military issued a short and general statement that they found several bodies in Gaza, creating an unprecedented uproar among the captives’ families, who called for mass protest against Netanyahu on Sunday.

“Netanyahu abandoned the hostages. This is now a fact. Starting tomorrow the country will tremble. We call on the public to prepare. We will bring the country to a halt. The abandonment is over,” the Hostage Families Forum Headquarters, said in a statement on Saturday.