The discovery of the bodies of six more hostages in Gaza has cracked the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

The Israeli army last night found the bodies of six hostages held captive by the Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, which widens the rift between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and those within his government who are calling on him to stop blocking a truce agreement.

Five of the dead – identified as Eden Yerushalmi, 24, American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Alexander Lobanov, 32, Almog Sarusi, 27, and Ori Danino, 25 – were abducted during the Hamas attack on the NOVA festival on October 7.

Israeli occupational therapist Carmel Gat, 40, was kidnapped while visiting her parents in Kibbutz Beeri, and authorities in the farming town confirmed her death today.

Military spokesman Nadav Shoshani said that according to an initial assessment, The hostages were “brutally murdered by Hamas” in a tunnel in Rafah, a town in the far south of Gaza, shortly before troops could reach them, although he declined to go into details.

But Hamas countered that the six hostages “were killed solely by Zionist bombings,” blaming Israel and its main partner and arms supplier, the United States.

The autopsy results, leaked to the local press, suggest that they had been shot in the head and were in good physical condition, with no signs of torture, starvation or the damage caused by Israeli bombing.

‘Hamas is not the only one responsible’

Now, There are 97 hostages still in Hamas hands since the October 7 attack, at least a third of whom are already dead.

The Hostage Families Forum reproached Netanyahu for the fact that only eight hostages have been rescued alive in military operations, compared to the 105 freed in the only truce agreement in November, in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

We do not expect terrorist (Hamas leader Yahya) Sinwar to want to return the hostages, we expect the Israeli Prime Minister to do everything, everything, everything to bring the hostages home.

“We do not expect the terrorist (Hamas leader Yahya) Sinwar to want to return the hostages, we expect the Israeli prime minister to do everything, everything, everything to bring the hostages home,” the Forum said, after Netanyahu again blamed Hamas in a message of condolences for the lack of a new pact.

“Hamas is not the only party responsible for sabotaging the agreement,” the Forum added in a statement.

Israel’s labor union federation, Histadrut, said on Saturday that it will decide “in the next few hours” whether or not to call a general strike, after The hostages’ families and opposition leader Yair Lapid called on him to shut down the economy in protest at the hostages’ deaths and the lack of a truce.

Netanyahu asks for ‘forgiveness’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday asked for “forgiveness” from the family of Alexander Lobanov, one of the six hostages.

“I would like to tell you how sorry I am and I apologize for not being able to bring Alexander back alive,” Netanyahu told the young man’s parents, Oxana and Grigory Lobanov, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office.

The president said his military secretary, Roman Gofman, returned this morning from a visit to Moscow aimed at advancing the agreement for a new truce with Hamas that would allow the release of the 97 hostages (of whom a third have died) who remain in Gaza.

Occupation of the Philadelphia Corridor

The discovery of the hostages’ bodies has revived growing differences within the government, between those who recognise the urgency of a truce agreement after almost eleven months of war, and the more extremist wing of the cabinet which advocates an even more violent response in the Strip, claiming to prioritise Israel’s “security”.

In an unprecedented move, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant asked the cabinet this morning to revoke Thursday’s vote to keep troops on the Gaza-Egypt dividing line – the so-called Philadelphia corridor – in order to reach a truce agreement as soon as possible.

For his part, the radical nationalist Minister of Finance, the settler Bezalel Smotrich, reiterated today in X his rejection of any “surrender agreement” and concluded that, on the contrary, it was a good time to “reduce the Strip.”

“The army should advance two kilometers inland from the current border and clear everything in its path. This is a territory that will never return to the hands of the inhabitants of Gaza,” the minister said in X.

The Minister of National Security, settler Itamar Ben Gvir, later expressed a similar tone, saying in a long message on X that Hamas “and only Hamas” is responsible for the death of the hostages and predicted a “next October 7” if Israel eases its offensive in Gaza.

“Those who demand the release of thousands of terrorists (through the hostage exchange) and giving Hamas control of the Philadelphia axis are deliberately abandoning the security of Israel’s citizens,” Ben Gvir said.

The war broke out on October 7 with a Hamas attack on Israel that left some 1,200 dead and 251 wounded. Since then, Israel’s devastating offensive on the Gaza Strip has left more than 40,700 dead, 94,000 wounded, 10,000 missing under the rubble and 1.9 million displaced – almost the entire population.