Dawn
Active member
Fury was palpable at the end of a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Thursday, as protesters demanded a deal to free Israeli hostages in Gaza and grieved this week’s news that the bodies of six captives had been retrieved.
Their tragic fate has raised fears that more Israeli hostages will not be retrieved alive either, said one protester. “We need to bring back those that we know were alive,” Daniel told CNN. Continuing war as negotiations for a ceasefire-hostage deal falter “will only bring more coffins to them and to us,” the 48-year-old added.
There has been no official explanation yet of how the six died.
On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that initial forensic tests suggest that all six hostages had been shot, but it has not determined whether the gunshot wounds were the cause of death. IDF also underlined that the findings are preliminary.
The IDF said four additional bodies were found next to the bodies of the six hostages, which were believed to be those of the Hamas militants who had been holding the hostages, but that no evidence of shooting was found on their bodies.
The IDF did not name any alleged shooter.
But standing outside Israel’s Ministry of Defense, Daniel said the IDF’s announcement that all six hostages had been shot underlines the potential danger in rescue operations that depend on force.
Israeli outlet Ynet had reported on Tuesday that an IDF preliminary assessment was that the hostages may have died due to suffocation after the IDF hit a nearby Hamas target and carbon dioxide flooded the tunnel where they were being held.
Asked in a news conference on Tuesday whether the IDF had killed the hostages, spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari did not clarify whether the hostages had been killed as a result of Israeli military action. Instead, Hagari referred back to a statement he made in June, when he had said the “the hostages were killed while our forces were operating in Khan Younis.”
Omer, 46, who was at the protest with his two daughters, said that he believed the six hostages “could have been saved a lot earlier.” He accused the Israeli government of repeatedly stalling on inking a deal with Hamas, which he warned would only led to Israel paying a higher price for an agreement that could have been secured earlier.
A ceasefire would also bring relief to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in the besieged enclave as Israel forges ahead with its military operation. The United Nations estimated in July that up to 1.9 million people in the strip have been displaced, almost the entire population of Gaza.
Amid renewed Israeli evacuation orders, the IDF-designated “humanitarian zone” in the Strip has been steadily shrinking. In the past month alone, the IDF has reduced this zone by 38% – with the remaining space making up just over a tenth of Gaza’s total area, according to a CNN analysis.
Their tragic fate has raised fears that more Israeli hostages will not be retrieved alive either, said one protester. “We need to bring back those that we know were alive,” Daniel told CNN. Continuing war as negotiations for a ceasefire-hostage deal falter “will only bring more coffins to them and to us,” the 48-year-old added.
There has been no official explanation yet of how the six died.
On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that initial forensic tests suggest that all six hostages had been shot, but it has not determined whether the gunshot wounds were the cause of death. IDF also underlined that the findings are preliminary.
The IDF said four additional bodies were found next to the bodies of the six hostages, which were believed to be those of the Hamas militants who had been holding the hostages, but that no evidence of shooting was found on their bodies.
The IDF did not name any alleged shooter.
But standing outside Israel’s Ministry of Defense, Daniel said the IDF’s announcement that all six hostages had been shot underlines the potential danger in rescue operations that depend on force.
Israeli outlet Ynet had reported on Tuesday that an IDF preliminary assessment was that the hostages may have died due to suffocation after the IDF hit a nearby Hamas target and carbon dioxide flooded the tunnel where they were being held.
Asked in a news conference on Tuesday whether the IDF had killed the hostages, spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari did not clarify whether the hostages had been killed as a result of Israeli military action. Instead, Hagari referred back to a statement he made in June, when he had said the “the hostages were killed while our forces were operating in Khan Younis.”
Urgency and chaos
The deaths have renewed urgency for a ceasefire among the protesters in Tel Aviv on Thursday.Omer, 46, who was at the protest with his two daughters, said that he believed the six hostages “could have been saved a lot earlier.” He accused the Israeli government of repeatedly stalling on inking a deal with Hamas, which he warned would only led to Israel paying a higher price for an agreement that could have been secured earlier.
A ceasefire would also bring relief to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in the besieged enclave as Israel forges ahead with its military operation. The United Nations estimated in July that up to 1.9 million people in the strip have been displaced, almost the entire population of Gaza.
Amid renewed Israeli evacuation orders, the IDF-designated “humanitarian zone” in the Strip has been steadily shrinking. In the past month alone, the IDF has reduced this zone by 38% – with the remaining space making up just over a tenth of Gaza’s total area, according to a CNN analysis.
