Netanyahu vows to make Hamas pay after hostages found dead in Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday vowed to make Hamas “pay the price” after Israeli occupation forces retrieved the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in Gaza and three Israeli police officers were killed near Hebron, in the occupied West Bank.

In a statement, Netanyahu said: “Whoever murders hostages doesn’t want a deal.” Addressing Hamas leaders, he added: “We will hunt you down, catch you, and settle the score.”

Meanwhile, opposition leader Yair Lapid called for a national strike to pressure the government into reaching an agreement to secure the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza.

Lapid, a former prime minister, urged every Israeli “whose heart was broken this morning” to join a major protest in Tel Aviv. He also called on Israel’s main labour union, businesses and municipalities to participate in the strike.

A senior Hamas official said yesterday that the six Israeli prisoners of war found in Gaza were killed as a result of ongoing Israeli air strikes, challenging the Israeli army’s claim that Hamas executed the hostages while they were in captivity.

“The ones who kill our people daily are the Israeli colonisers with American weapons. The hostages found in Gaza were not killed by us but by the relentless Zionist bombardment,” Izzat Al-Rishq said in a statement.

The first nationwide general strike since October is underway in Israel, amid widespread public anger at the government’s handling of the war in Gaza and its unwillingness to sign a ceasefire deal that would allow for prisoners of war held in the Strip to be returned. Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport was closed for two hours this morning as part of the protest action.

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