The Hamas Horror Continues

The bodies of six Israeli hostages were recovered on Saturday by Israel Defense Forces from tunnels under the Rafah area in southern Gaza. The Israeli Health Ministry determined the hostages died from multiple close-range gunshots, executed by Hamas shortly before the IDF reached them. The names of the dead are Ori Danino, Carmel Gat, Alex Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, Eden Yerushalmi, and Hersh Goldberg-Polin. May their memories be a blessing.

Goldberg-Polin was an Israeli American taken at the Re’im music festival where so many of the Oct. 7, 2023, horrors occurred. Hiding in a bomb shelter with friends and strangers, he had a portion of his arm blown off as he tried to remove grenades that militants had tossed into the bunker. He and his bloodied stump were thrown into the bed of a pickup truck and taken into Gaza. His parents, Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin, became outspoken advocates for all those aching to see the hostages brought safely home. They were relentless. They had audiences with President Joe Biden and Pope Francis. They went to the Gazan border to scream their son’s name. Goldberg never had any illusions that her son might not survive. “I don’t think there’s been one hour that I haven’t thought he’s dead,” she acknowledged a year ago. “Hersh may have died 13 days ago, and I don’t know about it. He may have died an hour ago. He may have died five days ago. He may have died on my birthday last week. I don’t know.” Now, terribly, his parents do know.

Echoing their sorrow, Vice President Kamala Harris condemned Hamas as “an evil terrorist organization” that now has “even more American blood on its hands.” She’s right. Now is a good time to remember that 45 Americans died on Oct. 7, 2023, and another 12 were kidnapped. Some were released. But, following Goldberg-Polin’s murder, there are still seven Americans in captivity. Along with the Americans, Hamas is still holding approximately 90 other hostages, including two children under the age of 5 who have now spent north of 20 percent of their lives as prisoners. Thirty-three of these hostages have already been declared dead by Israeli authorities.

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Marc is the McDonald Distinguished Scholar of Ethics, War, and Public Life at Providence: A Journal of Christianity & American Foreign Policy. He is also a non-resident research fellow at the U.S. Naval War College in the College of Leadership & Ethics. He is the author of The Good Kill: Just War and Moral Injury.