JERUSALEM (AP) — Four hostages kidnapped on Oct. 7 have been killed by Israeli forces, including three elderly men seen in a Hamas video pleading for their release, Israeli forces said in a Monday announcement. Pressure mounts To the Israeli government agree to the US ceasefire proposal Ensure the return of hostages held in Gaza; Eight months of war.
About 80 hostages in the Gaza Strip are believed to be alive, and the bodies of 43 others have been found. Since President Joe Biden announced the ceasefire proposal on Friday, Israel has seen some of the largest protests calling on the government to return the hostages. Biden said the proposal was Israeli, but Israeli leaders have appeared to distance themselves from the plan, vowing to continue military operations against Hamas until the militant group is destroyed.
The four whose deaths were announced Monday night – Nadav Popplewell, Amiram Cooper, Yoram Metzger and Haim Peri – were all kidnapped and taken alive to Gaza, according to the Hostage Forum, a grassroots group that represents the hostages’ families.
“The time has come to end the cycle of victimization and neglect,” the group said after the announcement. “The killing of prisoners is a testament to our disgrace and a sobering reminder of the gravity of the delays to previous agreements.” It called on the government to immediately approve the new ceasefire plan.
Late on Monday, hundreds of people, including relatives of prisoners, gathered outside the Israeli Defense Ministry and army headquarters in central Tel Aviv to call for a deal. Smaller protests were held across the country.
About 100 hostages were freed in a week-long exchange of hostages and Palestinian prisoners in November. Three of the men whose deaths were announced on Monday had relatives of women who were released during the exchange.
Israeli military spokesman Maj. Gen. Daniel Hagari said the four hostages were killed while together during a military operation in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza. He said the four were killed several months ago, but that recent operations had allowed the military to gather enough information to confirm the deaths.
The body remains in Hamas custody, and the cause of death was not immediately known. Hamas claimed in May that another hostage, Nadav Popplewell, who was declared dead, died of injuries sustained in an Israeli airstrike, but did not provide evidence. Popplewell was over 50 years old.
“We’re looking at all our options. There are a lot of questions,” Hagari said.
Cooper, Metzger and Peri were all over 80 years old. They appeared in a video released by Hamas in December titled “Don’t Let Us Grow Old Here,” in which they appear gaunt and thin, wearing thin white T-shirts.
“We are the generation that built the foundations of the state of Israel,” Peri said, noting that all of the men had chronic illnesses. “We don’t understand why we were left here.”
According to the Hostage Forum, Cooper was an economist and one of the founders of Kibbutz Nir Oz, Metzger helped establish the kibbutz’s winery, and Peri built the community’s art gallery and sculpture garden.
Nir Oz was one of the hardest hit towns on the Gaza border when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages to Gaza.
The news, released late Monday, came after an announcement earlier in the day that the body of the suspected hostage, Dorev Yehud, 35, had been found in a community near the Gaza border that Hamas fighters attacked on October 7. Yehud was Dozens of hostages held in Gaza Until Monday, when the military found his body and announced he had been killed in the initial attack.
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