The captives were killed shortly before being found in a tunnel, the IDF says.
The bodies of six hostages captured by Hamas militants on October 7 have been recovered from a tunnel in the Rafah area of southern Gaza, the Israeli military said on Sunday. All the victims have been named.
According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Ori Danino, 25, Alex Lubnov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Almog Sarusi, 25 were killed by Hamas shortly before the military found them.
Alex Lubnov (called Aleksander Lobanov in Russian media) was a Russian-Israeli citizen. According to the Hostage Families Forum, an organization representing relatives of the captives, he lived in Ashkelon, was married, and had two children. He was reportedly abducted from the NOVA music festival, where he worked as a bar manager.
News of the recovery sparked calls for “a massive demonstration” of the Hostage Families Forum, which criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to reach a hostage peace deal with Hamas that had been under negotiation for several months. It demanded “a complete shutdown of the country and the immediate implementation of an agreement to release the hostages.”
Hostilities between Israel and Hamas in Gaza flared when the Palestinian militant group conducted a surprise incursion into southern Israel 10 months ago, killing about 1,100 people and taking more than 200 hostages. Some were later freed through prisoner swaps or rescued by the Israeli army. The massive Israeli military response cost nearly 40,700 lives, while 94,060 people were wounded, according to Palestinian health officials.
Talks to bring about a truce and secure the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners have been held for months with mediation by Qatar, the United States and Egypt. Last month, Hamas rejected a renewed U.S. proposal for a hostage release and a cease-fire deal, accusing Netanyahu of sabotaging the negotiations and blaming Washington for supporting him. Israel said it could not accept Hamas’s demand for an end to the war in Gaza as a condition of a deal.
Last week, Reuters reported that Egypt was hosting delegations from the US and Israel for another round of talks on a ceasefire in Gaza.
According to Israel, 251 Israelis and foreigners were captured during the October 7 raid, and 103 are still being held in Gaza.
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