Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked for “forgiveness” on Monday evening from the families of the six Israeli hostages found dead in Gaza and buried in Israel on Sunday and Monday.
Addressing the families of the hostages at a rare news conference, Netanyahu said: “I apologize for not bringing them back alive. We were close but we did not succeed.” He added that the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas “will pay a very high price.”
Benjamin Netanyahu also said that the six hostages had been “executed” by Hamas with a “shot in the back of the head.” “These murderers executed six of our hostages by shooting them in the back of the head,” he said, with the Israeli Health Ministry indicating on Sunday that they had been killed “at point-blank range.”
General strike
Pressure is mounting on Israel’s prime minister to secure the release of the hostages held in Gaza, with US President Joe Biden accusing him on Monday of not doing enough to secure a deal. The hostages were taken to Gaza in an unprecedented attack by the Islamist movement Hamas on October 7 in southern Israel, which sparked war in the devastated and besieged Palestinian territory, which has been the target of new deadly Israeli strikes.
Mobilization is intensifying in Israel: almost daily demonstrations in Israeli cities with road blockades, strikes in several cities on Monday following a call by the Histadrut trade union center with disruptions at Ben Gurion airport, increasing number of declarations calling for the departure of Benjamin Netanyahu.
For its part, the United Kingdom announced that it was suspending around thirty arms export licenses to Israel out of a total of 350, citing a “risk” that these weapons would be used in violation of international law in Gaza.