Hamas releases video of six hostages killed
Hamas has released footage of the six murdered hostages, whose bodies were recovered by the IDF in Rafah, southern Gaza. It is unclear when the video was shot, but Hamas says it is a promo for a longer video to be released soon that will feature Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lobanov, Carmel Gat and Almog Sarusi. Most Israeli media outlets are not publishing the clip.
Biden, Gaza deal close but Bibi not doing enough
Joe Biden told reporters that a final deal to release Hamas hostages in Gaza is very close, but that he does not believe Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is doing enough to secure such a deal.
Biden: ‘We won’t give up on hostages, we’ll keep pushing’
“We are not giving up, we will continue to push”: said Joe Biden in response to reporters who asked him what his message is to the families of the Hamas hostages.
Court Orders End of General Strike in Israel
The president of the labor court has ordered the end of the general strike in Israel at 2:30 p.m. local time, “after having listened to the positions of the parties,” Ynet reports. The injunction comes after the government has put strong pressure on the union not to block the country’s activities, as is instead happening. Yesterday, a minister from Likud, the same party as the prime minister, reported that Benyamin Netanyahu is very afraid of the huge protests against the government. Yesterday, the Histadrut, the large union that represents hundreds of thousands of workers, said that the strike could continue tomorrow. Uprising in Israel, Netanyahu under attack for the 6 hostages killed by Hamas: “Abandoned to die”
Protests erupted in Israel after soldiers recovered Palestinians from a tunnel in Rafah, southern Gazathe bodies of six young hostages executed by Hamas with a shot to the head less than 48 hours before they were detectedThe Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which brings together many of the relatives of those kidnapped in the October 7 raid, accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government of being responsible for the deaths of the hostages, who survived nearly eleven months in captivity. “Officially abandoned to die” in the hands of Hamas in Gaza: this is the message posted on social media by the forum that urged Israelis to take to the streets. “Abandonment killed them, indifference will kill those who remain.”
Netanyahu’s message
Netanyahu, after waiting several hours before commenting, stressed in a video message that “Whoever kills hostages doesn’t want a deal“. “Hamas has been against negotiations since December,” the prime minister added, and “the fact that it continues to commit atrocities such as those committed on October 7 obliges us to do everything possible to ensure that it cannot do so again.”
Demonstrations have been called across the country to push for an immediate agreement with Hamas to bring the kidnapped Palestinians home. still alive in the hands of the Palestinian militant group and allow those killed to be buried. Thousands of people gathered outside the Knesset in Jerusalem as an emergency meeting of the security cabinet was underway, and a protest was planned at the same location for tomorrow at noon.
“Members of the government, you are going to find out the hard way what is important to this nation. You will not have a moment’s rest,” one organizer assured. Dozens of people blocked Tel Aviv’s main road, setting fire to tires, thousands showed up at Ashkelon cemetery to attend the funeral of 33-year-old Alex Lobanov, one of the six killed hostages, while the American ambassador, Jack Lew, also arrived at the vigil in Tel Aviv.
“Body bags instead of a deal”
A call for a general strike has been launched for tomorrow, which has been welcomed by the Histadrut, the powerful workers’ union. “From tomorrow at 6 in the morning the entire labor sector will strike. An agreement is more important than anything else”warned the head of the union, Arnon Bar-David, claiming to have spoken to many members of the security apparatus and to believe that the agreement is blocked “due to political considerations”. “We are receiving body bags instead of an agreement,” he added, “I have come to the conclusion that only our intervention can convince those who need to be convinced”.
Among those who had already announced their participation in tomorrow’s initiative is the mayor of Tel Aviv, Ron Huldai. Also in favor of the general strike to “stop the country” is opposition leader Yair Lapid, who in a video urged the population to join the protests, starting with the evening vigil in Tel Aviv at the headquarters of the Forum, followed by a demonstration. “They were alive. Netanyahu and his cabinet of death chose not to save the hostages. I call on the Histadrut union, large companies and local authorities to stop the economy,” said the leader of Yesh Atid, stressing that “we cannot go on like this”.
This is a very strong decision, never taken since the massacre of October 7 and the beginning of the war in Gaza. The last time the Histadrut called a general strike was in late March 2023, after Netanyahu announced the dismissal of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for publicly calling for a halt to the controversial justice reform that had sparked mass protests and a rift in society.
Faced with a harsh popular reaction, the head of government was forced in mid-April to review his decision on Gallant. Netanyahu once again had a tough clash with Gallant on Thursday evening over the fate of the hostages. The prime minister insisted on the need to keep Israeli troops in the Philadelphia corridor, on the border between Gaza and Egypt – one of the main issues blocking negotiations for an agreement with Hamas – and acknowledged that he preferred this to the fate of the kidnapped. A decision that according to the defense minister undermines the ongoing talks, effectively preventing an agreement to bring the hostages home, abandoning them to their fate. On Saturday night, the bodies of the six young people, killed with a shot to the head less than 48 hours earlier, were recovered.
Who were the victims killed in Gaza?
Among the bodies recovered is that of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli-American citizen: the parents have become well-known faces in the battle for the release of the kidnapped children and even spoke at the Democratic convention in Chicago last month. US President Joe Biden, “heartbroken by the news” of the young man’s death, assured that he had “worked tirelessly to bring Hersh home safe and sound” and that “work will continue to reach an agreement that will ensure the release of the other kidnapped children”. The US vice president and Democratic presidential candidate also made her voice heard, Kamala Harris, who expressed her “strong condemnation of Hamas’s continued brutality, and so must the entire world.”
“With these killings, Hamas has even more American blood on its hands,” he said in a statement on X, calling it an “evil terrorist organization.” Around 100 people also gathered in New York’s Central Park to commemorate the slain kidnappers, and a vigil is planned later in the day at Columbus Circle on the Upper West Side. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the EU’s foreign policy chief and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also condemned their killing. The leaders also reiterated their strong demands for Hamas to immediately release the hostages and for a ceasefire agreement in Gaza.
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