Among the bodies found was that of California native Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose ordeal after he was taken at gunpoint at the Nova music festival on October 7 led to him becoming one of the faces of the devastating international hostage crisis that has challenged the leadership of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and triggered widespread destruction in Gaza.
Israeli soldiers found the six bodies in tunnels under the enclave, according to the military. The hostages were killed “a short while before we reached them,” Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a briefing.
The parents of 23-year-old Goldberg-Polin have been among the most vocal of the hostage families pushing Netanyahu to seek a deal securing their relatives’ return. Their tireless and high-profile campaigning saw them meet with world leaders, and earlier this month, give an emotional address at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
“With broken hearts, the Goldberg-Polin family is devastated to announce the death of their beloved son and brother, Hersh. The family thanks you all for your love and support and asks for privacy at this time,” the family said in a statement.
The Israeli military named the other five victims as Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, Alex Lobanov and Ori Danino. CNN is reaching out to their families.
US President Joe Biden said the bodies were recovered under the city of Rafah in southern Gaza.
“I am devastated and outraged,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House that also paid tribute to Goldberg-Polin’s parents.
“They have been courageous, wise, and steadfast, even as they have endured the unimaginable,” Biden said. “They have been relentless and irrepressible champions of their son and of all the hostages held in unconscionable conditions.”
Goldberg-Polin and friends hid inside a small bomb shelter when Hamas gunmen launched their murderous attack on Israel’s southern border. As militants began to throw grenades into the bunker, Goldberg-Polin rushed to throw them out, before his arm was blown off from the elbow down, according to a firsthand account from his friend.
‘Anguish and misery’
Goldberg-Polin’s death in particular will reverberate not just in Israel but in US political circles.
His parents Rachel and Jonathan have regularly met top US officials in Washington to press the case of the hostages, and their emotional address to top Democrats at the convention earlier this month inextricably tied the hostages’ fate to US policy over the war in Gaza.
Rachel Goldberg-Polin told CNN in January that she wears a piece of tape marking each day that has passed since her son was kidnapped.
At her convention speech, she described life since October 7 as like living on “another planet.”
“Anyone who is a parent or has had a parent can try to imagine the anguish and misery that Jon and I and all the hostage families are enduring,” she told delegates.
Some of those discovered dead in the tunnels under Gaza this weekend were, like Goldberg-Polin, captured at the Nova music festival. Lobanov, a 32-year-old father of two, and Yerushalmi, 24, were both tending bar at the gathering, according to the Hostages Families Forum. Danino, 25, and Sarusi, 27, were also at the festival.
Gat, 40, was taken from Kibbutz Be’eri. She had been visiting her parents when Hamas militants stormed the community close to Gaza’s border, killing and taking hostages as they went.
Anger in Israel
News of more hostage deaths piles pressure on Netanyahu as anger inside Israel swells over the failure to strike a ceasefire deal, and as stark disagreements between the prime minister and his military leaders increasingly spill out into the open.
It also ups the stakes for Biden to push US ally Israel to find a way out of a devastating war in Gaza that has inflamed global public opinion and repeatedly threatened to spiral into an all-out regional conflict.
“Make no mistake, Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes. And we will keep working around the clock for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages,” Biden said in his statement on Goldberg-Polin’s death.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said “the heart of an entire nation is shattered to pieces” by the news of the six dead.
“On behalf of the State of Israel, I embrace their families with all my heart, and apologize for failing to bring them home safely,” Herzog said in a statement.
“We will continue to fight relentlessly against the criminal, terrorist organization Hamas, which has once again proven there is no end to its willingness to commit murder and crimes against humanity.”
Israel launched its war against Hamas in Gaza after the militant group’s October 7 cross-border attacks, in which more than 1,200 Israelis were killed and 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities.
More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the health ministry in the enclave.
Anger has been growing inside Israel, led by many hostage families who believe Netanyahu and key far-right cabinet colleagues have been stalling on achieving a ceasefire resolution with Hamas that might bring those captured and killed home.
Netanyahu has been adamant that a deal can only be signed when Israel’s safety is assured.
But domestic pressure is building, with the Hostages Families Forum being among the most critical of the Israeli prime minister.
“A deal for the return of the hostages has been on the table for over two months,” the forum said on Sunday. “Were it not for the delays, sabotage, and excuses those whose deaths we learned about this morning would likely still be alive. It’s time to bring our hostages home – the living for rehabilitation, and the fallen and murdered for burial in their homelands.”
The group has called for a “public mobilization” on Sunday and will release more details later.
Biden said Saturday evening that his staff has been in touch with Israeli officials. Biden also called for an end to the war, expressing optimism that an agreement could be reached on a ceasefire-for-hostages deal and adding that parties involved in the negotiation have said they “agree on the principles.”
“It’s time this war ended,” Biden added. “I think we’re on the verge of having an agreement. It’s time to end it. It’s time to finish it.”
The US, Qatar and Egypt, who have acted as mediators, this month renewed a push to reach a hostage and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
The mediators have proposed a three-phase approach: a first phase involving a six-week ceasefire; a second phase that would release all hostages and a withdrawal of all IDF presence from Gaza; and a third reconstruction phase.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
CNN’s James Legge, Elliott Gotkine and Tamar Michaelis contributed to this report.
