ISRAEL has vowed to make Hamas “pay the price” after it executed six hostages kidnapped on October 7 and kept in Gaza for almost a year.
Their deaths sparked mass protests across Israel as people raged against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his handling of the war in Gaza and the lack of a ceasefire-hostage release deal.
The six Israelis were shot multiple times from close range, an autopsy revealed, only hours before the IDF discovered them in a Hamas tunnel in Gaza on Saturday.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote on X today: “Israel will respond with full force to this heinous crime. Hamas is responsible and will pay the full price.”
On Sunday some half a million people took to the streets across the country, setting fires, carrying placards of a blood-soaked Netanyahu, waving ‘Bring Them Home’ posters and blocking roads.
The marches, organised by Israel’s Hostages and Missing Families Forum, are demanding a ceasefire deal that would see the remaining hostages returned safely home.
Out of some 250 kidnapped during the October 7 massacre last year, around 101 remain in the Strip with officials estimating a third are already dead.
During the brief and only ceasefire agreement so far in the war – in November last year – 105 civilian hostages were released.
Nadav is alive. My son is still alive. But every day is a Russian roulette
Einav Zangauker
Since then, Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have only successfully rescued eight.
Protesters are pushing for Netanyahu to secure another deal that could free the remaining hostages.
He has been repeatedly accused of putting victory for the IDF in Gaza – complete destruction of Hamas – above their safe return.
One of the major sticking points for failed negotiations in recent months has been the Philadelphia Corridor – a border between Gaza and Egypt.
Netanyahu refuses to remove IDF troops from the stretch of land – something Hamas has also refused to compromise on.
Einav Zangauker, mum of a hostage still in Gaza, spoke at a rally during the protests on Sunday and said: “Nadav is alive. My son is still alive. But every day is a Russian roulette.”
She said the PM would play “until they’re all dead, [but] we won’t let him” and said he had “put the hostages to the guillotine”.
The heartbroken mum also said the six murdered hostages died “on the altar of Philadelphi [Corridor] spin”.
The bodies of Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Ori Danino were brought home to Israel by the IDF after the tragic discovery this weekend.
The bodies of Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexnder Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Ori Danino were brought home to Israel by the IDF after the tragic discovery.
Israel’s Health Ministry announced that an autopsy carried out by the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute found all of them were shot several times from close range.
Security officials fear Hamas executed the six over fears another hostage rescued from a nearby tunnel last week would reveal information about their whereabouts, Channel 12 reports.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum blamed Netanyahu for the deaths of the hostages, claiming they were a “direct result of failing to sign a deal”.
“Over the past few months, eight hostages were rescued alive through military operations, compared to 105 hostages released in a deal last November,” they said in a statement.
In a statement, the PM said that Israel was committed to achieving a deal to release the hostages and that “Hamas refuses to conduct real negotiations.”
“Whoever murders hostages – does not want a deal,” he added.
Hordes of angry and grieving citizens marched with puppets of Netanyahu dressed as the grim reaper as police were dispatched to the scenes in Israel yesterday.
Protesters in capital Jerusalem filled the streets and focused marches outside Netanyahu’s residence.
Major city Tel Aviv was another focal point as people blocked its main motorway and set fires across the city.
In the smaller city of Rehovot, central Israel, people blocked traffic and shouted, “We want them back living, not in coffins!”
Riot police were pictured spraying marchers with a water cannon as they sat cross-legged in the middle of a road in Tel Aviv.
In Jerusalem cops unleashed skunk water, a harmful control weapon, at the crowds.
Around 29 were arrested nationwide, according to local media.
Photos showed some people being dragged away by riot cops as they forcefully removed hundreds of people from marches across the country.
Some 300,000 people took part in Tel Aviv, with a wider 500,000 across Israel.
The conflict in Gaza is fast approaching the one-year mark.
Figures from the Hamas-run health ministry in the Strip estimate that more than 40,000 people have been killed.
Around 1,200 people were killed in Israel on October 7 last year.
