Six Hostages Found Dead in Gaza Before Rescue

Six hostages found dead in Gaza before rescue

The bodies of six captives taken on October 7 were discovered in the Gaza Strip. Military spokesperson Daniel Hagari announced the find on Sunday morning, a day after the initial report, attributing the deaths to their captors: according to this account, they were killed before forces could complete the rescue. The names, one by one: Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov and Ori Danino.

Who killed the six hostages? The official account and doubts

The military version is that Hamas executed the captives upon seeing troops arrive. Others argue the opposite: that a rescue operation went wrong and some shots were friendly fire. The suspicion is not new: in similar terms, the so-called Anibal Directive has been debated before. Neither reading has been independently verified, and the matter remains open.

The history of such operations does not help, with incidents where confusion over who was who was paid for with lives. The practical result is that the headline 'Hamas killed them' and the headline 'their liberators killed them' coexist without either being fully settled.

Carmel Gat’s family does not want to be part of the event

The most uncomfortable statement did not come from Gaza. The family of Carmel Gat, captured in the Be'eri kibbutz, stated they had no interest in speaking to anyone they believed had killed Carmel, nor in serving as a prop in his media role, and put 'the blood of the hostages' in their hands. Gat had organized guided yoga and meditation exercises among the captives, according to released individuals.

The public moved in the same direction: the largest protest since the start of the war, in Tel Aviv, demanding a ceasefire agreement and the prime minister's resignation. Families subsequently called for a strike to paralyze the country.

Six names against tens of thousands: the fight for the measuring stick

The question that trinc any subsequent conversation is one of scale. Six captives against tens of thousands of deaths in Gaza, the figure of 40,000 is repeated in the exchange. The most widespread response among those defending the military operation is that the equivalence does not exist: if the deaths on the other side are responsible for deliberate kidnappings and murders, the comparison is a trap. The contrary response is that measuring sticks are applied according to the passport.

In the middle lies a recurring calculation: that the total number of deaths is less than 1% of the population in almost a year, and that this distances it from the legal definition of genocide. Others counter that the number of detainees, around ten thousand, does not allow labeling them all as Hamas terrorists.

Genocide? The pulse on Lemkin’s definition

The discussion has moved to the dictionary. The term was coined in 1944 by the Polish-Jewish jurist Raphael Lemkin, for whom it did not necessarily miccionan mass murders, but a coordinated plan against a group. Based on this, some organizations argue the case fits; the opposing side argues that this elastic reading has been applied before to situations having nothing to do with extermination. No one is moving their position with a paragraph.

Four hundred kilometers under Gaza and the Druze of the Golan

On the military plane, a repeated fact: the tunnel network under Gaza’s buildings exceeds 400 kilometers, and this explains why the infrastructure cannot be blown up without collapsing what is above it. It is, according to this reading, the functional part of victimhood as a strategy.

And in the chapter of who is 'one of their own,' the Golan appears. The numbers of the June 1967 occupation are cited: from 130,000 inhabitants, it went to 6,396, with 250 people in Qunaytra, 521 in Ghajar, and 5,675 distributed between Mas'ada, Buq'ata, Sahita, 'Ayn Qunyih, and Majdal Shams. In Majdal Shams live about 2,068 Israeli citizens, some minors, and in the last legislative elections, only 169 of the 962 registered voters cast ballots. Let each draw their own conclusion.

What remains when the echo of messages fades

Alexander Lobanov was 32 years old, was Russian-Israeli, and was kidnapped at the Nova festival. His vvife, Michal, gave birth to their second child in February, while he remained a captive. She never got to see him.

That is the disconcerting fact, not the count of communiqués. The rest, who pulled the trigger and at what distance, is exactly what neither side has made clear.