'The worst price': Israelis bury recovered Gaza hostages

 

Israeli police officers face protesters during an anti-government rally calling for the release of Israelis held hostage by Palestinian militants in Gaza since October, on a highway in Tel Aviv on September 1, 2024. [AFP]

The families of Israeli hostages whose bodies were recovered from Gaza sobbed as they laid their relatives to rest on Sunday at funerals that featured heartfelt eulogies alongside expressions of frustration with the government.

"Almog, my dear son, how much hope we had, how much we prayed that we would get the chance to see you again, to hug you, to enjoy your smile," Almog Sarusi's mother Nira said at the lectern during her son's funeral in the city of Raanana in central Israel.

"But on October 7 you were neglected," she added, referring to the day Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, seizing her son from the Nova music festival along with 250 other hostages.

She went on to describe "ongoing neglect, every day, every hour, 331 days... You were sacrificed to 'destroy Hamas'."

The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

That toll includes Almog Sarusi and five other hostages recovered from a Gaza tunnel on Saturday.

Israeli authorities confirmed their identities on Sunday. The health ministry said they were shot at close range shortly before soldiers found them.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign to destroy Hamas has killed 40,738 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

The UN says the majority of the dead in Gaza are women and children.

'Enough'

The identification of six new dead hostages on Sunday elicited fresh anger from critics of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who accuse him of not working hard enough to secure a ceasefire deal that would lead to the release of those still being held captive.

Tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets across the country on Sunday afternoon and evening.

In Jerusalem, protesters holding Israeli flags and signs bearing the faces of hostages shouted "Where are you?!" into loudspeakers directed at the government office building where a cabinet meeting was set to take place.

"We don't know who will be the next family that will get the terrible call," said Eyal Kalderon, cousin of French-Israeli hostage Ofer Kalderon who is still captive.

"Of course it was six young and beautiful people today, and it can be any of the others in the future."

The crowds at funerals and memorial services on Sunday were more subdued.

In Petah Tikva, friends and family of Eden Yerushalmi, whose death was also confirmed on Sunday, cried and caressed her body which was wrapped in a blue-and-white Israeli flag.

In Jerusalem, hundreds of people gathered at a community centre near the synagogue where the family of US-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose death was also announced on Sunday, worships.

Candles were lit in front of signs in Hebrew and English that read "Bring Hersh Home", and many in attendance wept openly as the names of other hostages were read out.

Goldberg-Polin's funeral will take place on Monday in Jerusalem.

Back in Raanana, Nira Sarusi told mourners she hoped no other families would have to go through similar ceremonies.

"Enough, no more. We paid the worst price. I hope that we will be the last ones. From now on, only a deal to bring all the hostages back."