Israeli protests demand Gaza deal after IDF says 6 hostages killed

Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotric addresses the relatives of Israelis being held hostage during the rally in the center of Jerusalem, on June 3.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has asked the country’s attorney general to request urgent injunctions to prevent a planned nationwide strike on Monday.

In a letter addressed to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, Smotrich argued that a strike would hurt the economy during wartime and set a dangerous precedent. The attorney general’s office has not yet commented on the request.

Earlier, Smotrich said he instructed the finance ministry’s salary department to pass on a directive that anyone who joins the strike on Monday will not be paid.?

The nationwide general strike was called on by Arnon Bar-David — the leader of Israel’s largest labor union, known as the Histadrut — to pressure the government to secure the return of hostages in Gaza.

Smotrich said such a strike lacks any legal basis, arguing that it is political and intended to “improperly” influence policy decisions related to state security.

“These issues are at the core of the authority of the political establishment and they are not the subject of a strike by trade unions and there is no connection between them and labor relations in Israel,” Smotrich claimed in the letter to the attorney general.

Bar-David has vowed “the entire Israeli economy will shut down” at 6 a.m. local time Monday (11 p.m. ET on Sunday).

“We are in a downward spiral, and we don’t stop receiving body bags,” the labor leader said at a news conference earlier Sunday. Bar-David argued that political considerations have hindered progress on a hostage deal, and “only a strike would shock.”

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant on Sunday about the recovery of six hostages’ bodies in Gaza, according to the Pentagon.?

Austin passed along his deepest?condolences to the families of all slain hostages, and he expressed “outrage at their vicious, illegal, and immoral execution at the hand of Hamas,” according to a Pentagon readout.

Austin also sent his condolences to the three Israeli police officers killed in an attack in the occupied West Bank on Sunday morning, the readout said.

Austin expressed concern over rising tensions in the territory, where Israel just carried out a multi-day military operation that left at least 15 people dead and infrastructure destroyed in some of the West Bank’s most populace areas. There has also been a surge in Israeli?settler violence?across the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.

Protesters raise their megaphones as they block Tel Aviv's Ayalon highway during an anti-government rally calling for the release of Israelis held hostage by Palestinian militants in Gaza since October, on September 1.

In what organizers later described as an “endless sea of protesters,” an outpouring of anger and grief swelled into mass demonstrations in Tel Aviv and beyond Sunday, after Israel’s military said it had found the bodies of six hostages killed by Hamas in Gaza.

While the protesters hold Hamas responsible for the death of hostages taken in the October 7 attacks, they also blame Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his handling of the crisis, saying he has not done enough to secure a hostage-ceasefire deal.

Here are some of the scenes from around Sunday’s numerous protests:

In Tel Aviv, where organizers said they held the largest demonstration since the start of the war, crowds chanted “we won’t abandon them” and repeated the names of the six hostages whose bodies were recovered in Gaza.

A group of protesters could be seen standing behind a mock cemetery made of cardboard cutouts holding a sign saying “named after?Benjamin Netanyahu,” casting blame on?him?for the death of the hostages.

One protester told CNN said she was there to show support for her cousin, whose body was repatriated by the Israel Defense Forces overnight.?

When asked if she thinks this protest will bring about a change, she admitted she’s not very hopeful. “I think that the fact that this hasn’t brought any change so far, goes to show how oblivious our leaders are,”?she said.

“Bibi is looking to keep his chair, everything he does is merely for the sake of holding on to his power,” she said, using a popular nickname for Netanyahu. “I believe he’s frightened, even though he has zero emotion or empathy. He neglected them,” she said.

Meanwhile, thousands of protesters gathered in the southern city of Be’er Sheva for the biggest demonstration there since October 7, according to protest organizers.?

At a demonstration in Ra’anana, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Tel Aviv, police appear to have pepper-sprayed protesters. A speaker can be heard in the background of one video telling the crowd to?“have a drink of water and return to the intersection (to protest).”

Another video, from earlier on Sunday,?showed several protesters burning what appeared to be tires on the Road 2 highway, north of Tel Aviv.

More to come: The Hostages and Missing Families Forum has called for the country to be brought to a?“halt” over the news of the killed hostages, and urged the country to put pressure on the government to sign a deal to have the remaining hostages released before they are killed as well.

The country’s largest labor union has called for a nationwide strike, saying the?“entire Israeli economy will shut down”?Monday.

Former US President Donald Trump said Sunday that “we grieve the senseless death” of the?six hostages whose bodies were recovered in an underground tunnel in Gaza.

“We grieve the senseless death of the Israeli Hostages, horrifically including a wonderful American Citizen, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, murdered by Hamas,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social.

Trump went on to attribute the hostages’ death to a “complete lack of American Strength and Leadership,” continuing a string of comments Sunday laying blame on his opponent in the 2024 presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris, and President Joe Biden.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seen in Jerusalem on July 16.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “worried” about the widespread protests taking place in Israel, an Israeli official has told CNN.

Protesters gathered in cities across the country on Sunday to call for a hostage deal to be reached after the Israeli military recovered the bodies of six hostages it said Hamas had killed in Gaza.?

Netanyahu has received?blame from critics?who say he has not prioritized the return of the hostages.??

Protesters rally in Tel Aviv, Israel, on September 1.

At least 700,000 people have taken part in protests across Israel calling for a ceasefire and hostage deal, with an estimated 550,000 of them in Tel Aviv, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum told CNN on Sunday.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters surged onto the streets of Tel Aviv on Sunday as anger mounted after the Israeli military said it had recovered the bodies of six hostages killed by Hamas in Gaza.

Protest organizers, who described the crowd in Tel Aviv as an “endless sea of protesters,” said Sunday’s gathering was the city’s largest demonstration since the start of the war on October 7.

Earlier Sunday, protest organizers had estimated the crowd size in Tel Aviv at 300,000. CNN cannot independently verify the figures and has asked Israeli police to provide an estimation of the crowd size.?

CNN video showed large crowds gathered near the?Israel Defense Forces?headquarters in?Tel Aviv, many waving Israeli flags and holding posters with images of hostages being held in Gaza as?they called for a ceasefire and hostage deal.

Crowds chanted “we won’t abandon them” and repeated the names of the six hostages whose bodies were recovered by the Israeli military on Saturday.

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem said it will join other Israeli research universities in Monday’s nationwide strike to demand a hostage deal.?

“This unprecedented action is in response to the tragic news of the murder of our student Carmel Gat, along with five other Israeli hostages,” a university spokesperson told CNN, referring to a 40-year-old occupational therapist who was taken by Hamas from her parents’ home in the border?kibbutz?of Be’eri in southern Israel.

The school said in a statement that it will shut down all activities on Monday except for exams.

The shutdown is considered more extensive than previous measures taken since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, the spokesperson said.?The university had taken part in a partial strike in June.

Police use?water?canon on protesters during a rally in?Tel?Aviv, Israel on September 1.

Protesters in Tel Aviv have blocked several lanes on the Ayalon Highway as they call for the release of hostages in Gaza.

Police have responded by firing water cannons with foam and forcibly carrying away demonstrators sitting in the the road.?When some of the protesters lit tree branches on fire in the middle of the highway, officers extinguished the flames with the cannons and cleared the group out.

They also sprayed water cannons on protesters standing on the side of the road. Demonstrators were heard chanting, “Officer, who are you keeping safe?”??

Some were seen using smoke canisters and waving Israeli flags, demanding a hostage deal.?

In Haifa, police say they arrested two protesters who allegedly lit torches.

This post has been updated with more scenes from the protests.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stands during an honor cordon at the Pentagon on June 25, in Arlington, Virginia.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant lambasted the Israeli government for what he said was prioritizing control of a key border area over a deal to free hostages, calling it a “moral disgrace” during a Cabinet meeting on Sunday, CNN has learned.

Gallant has recently clashed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the terms for control of a 14-kilometer (8.7-mile) area along the border of Gaza and Egypt called the Philadelphi corridor, according to Israeli media reports.

“I was taught that we don’t leave the injured behind in the field. It’s a moral disgrace,” he is understood to have said.

Growing debate: Gallant has increasingly found himself isolated within Netanyahu’s Cabinet on the issue of a hostage deal. He was the lone vote against maintaining control of the Philadelphi corridor as a condition for any hostage release deal, and on Sunday he failed in his efforts to get a re-vote on the matter following the news of six hostages’ deaths.

During the meeting, CNN has learned other Cabinet members argued it would be a mistake to reverse course on the Philadelphi corridor decision and would only reward Hamas for killing the hostages.

Gallant fired back, arguing that Israel could recapture the corridor after hostages are released. “Within eight hours we can take over the Philadelphi corridor, except we would have 20 to 30 hostages (back in Israel),” Gallant said.

While Gallant finds himself isolated among other ministers in the Israeli cabinet, his views are largely shared by Israel’s security establishment. Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon, the head of the Israel Defense Forces’ hostages unit, also warned that the remaining hostages face “immediate danger” that is only intensifying.

Protesters gather to demand a Gaza hostages deal on September 1, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on September 1.

Protests have broken out in big cities, small towns and on highways across Israel as demonstrators call for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas.

Protest locations include Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Ra’anana, Be’er Sheva, Kfar Saba, Kiryat Bialik, Afula, Ness Ziona, Binyamina, and various major intersections and bridges around the country, according to protest organizers.

In Tel Aviv, organizers estimated a crowd size of 300,000. CNN has asked police for an estimate on the number of attendees.

In Jerusalem, a group representing the families of Israeli hostages said thousands of supporters had joined them in demonstrating outside a cabinet meeting.

The forum had called for protests on Sunday as anger mounts in the country after the Israeli military said it recovered the bodies of six hostages killed by Hamas in Gaza. Three of the hostages had been expected to be released in an eventual ceasefire deal, Israeli officials told CNN.

People attend a demonstration calling for the immediate return of hostages held in Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, outside Prime Minister office in?Jerusalem?September 1.

Hundreds of Israelis joined the families of hostages held in Gaza in a protest outside the government’s cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday.?

Demonstrators waved flags and pictures of the remaining hostages in Gaza, demanding a deal to bring them home immediately.

Eden Kramer, who attended the rally with a toddler in a stroller, said she’s also demonstrating for the child’s future.

Some protesters said the government is partly to blame for the deaths of six hostages whose bodies were recovered from Gaza this week. The Israeli military says Hamas killed the hostages.

“Of course, I blame Hamas first but they (the government) also have responsibility for not doing what is necessary to do at the right time,” Uri Gat, a biology professor at Hebrew University told CNN, saying officials should have struck a hostage-ceasefire deal earlier.

Another protester, Zohar Trifon, called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign, saying he has done “so much damage”?and that he should “give room for other, more beneficious politicians who feel for the people and for the country.”

People attend a demonstration calling for the immediate return of hostages held in Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, outside Prime Minister office in Jerusalem September 1.

Shikma Bressler, a prominent political activist and one of the leading figures during the historic 2023 protests?in Israel, told CNN she feels today’s protest is “different.”

“I believe there’s a difference between the public ‘knowing’ something, and actually feeling it. Today, the mind connected to the emotion. The penny dropped — Israel’s government prefers that its citizens die over returning them home, returning the mandate to the people, and heading to elections,” she said.?

Remember: The Israel Defense Forces said Saturday that it located and recovered the bodies of six hostages killed by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and returned them to Israeli territory. That has led to fresh anger at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for failing to secure a deal for the release of the hostages.

The chairman of Israel’s General Federation of Labor (Histadrut),?Arnon Bar-David, has called for a nationwide general strike to begin Monday morning after holding what he called a “charged and difficult” meeting with representatives of hostage families in Tel Aviv.

Top row, from left: Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi and Carmel Gat. Bottom row, from left: Ori Danino, Almog Sarusi and Alex Lobanov.

A senior US official says the Israeli military’s recovery of several dead hostages in Gaza calls into question how serious Hamas is about reaching a ceasefire deal.

The official noted that pressure is now also growing on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing more mass protests tonight over his government’s failure to secure a deal for the hostages’ release.

Some of the hostages who Israel says were killed by Hamas had been set to be released as part of an eventual ceasefire agreement, according to Israeli officials and the senior US official who spoke with CNN.

After the bodies were discovered Saturday, President Joe Biden still expressed hopes for a ceasefire agreement, saying negotiators were on the “verge” of a deal.

“It’s time this war ended,” Biden said. “I think we’re on the verge of having an agreement. It’s time to end it. It’s time to finish it.”

He added: “We think we can close the deal, they’ve all said they agree on the principles.”

But, in the aftermath of the discovery of the hostages, a potential path forward for the long-sought ceasefire agreement remains up in the air.

President Joe Biden speaks to the press after attending a service at St. Edmond's Catholic Church on August 31, in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

US President Joe Biden spoke with the parents of?Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a White House official says, after his body was recovered Saturday by the Israeli military in Gaza.

“This morning, President Biden spoke with?Rachel Goldberg and?Jon Polin, parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, to offer his condolences for the death of their son at the hands of Hamas,” the official said.

US Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff spoke with the parents on Sunday, too, according to a post on X by Harris.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also spoke with the parents to share his condolences Sunday morning, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polinthe, parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, speak and share their “pain and misery” for their missing son at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 21.

Remember: The Israel Defense Forces says Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli-American who had become a symbol of the hostage crisis, was killed by Hamas along with five other hostages before their bodies were recovered in Gaza on Saturday.

This post has been updated to note conversations with the parents by the US vice president and secretary of state.

CNN’s Alex Marquardt contributed reporting to this post.

An autopsy has concluded that the six hostages found dead in Gaza by Israel were killed by short-range shots, a spokesperson for Israel’s health ministry said Sunday.

Their deaths are estimated to have happened about 48 to 72 hours before Sunday morning’s examination, meaning the hostages likely died between Thursday and Friday morning, the ministry spokesperson said.?

Remember: Israel’s military has accused Hamas of killing the hostages. The Israel Defense Forces says it recovered their bodies from an underground tunnel in Rafah on Saturday and returned them to Israeli territory.

The chairman of Israel’s General Federation of Labor (Histadrut),?Arnon Bar-David, has called for a nationwide general strike to begin Monday morning after holding what he called a “charged and difficult” meeting with representatives of hostage families in Tel Aviv.

The strike will begin at 6 a.m. local time and include the shutdown of Israel’s main international airport, Bar-David said at a news conference Sunday, though Ben-Gurion Airport said in a statement that it would be “open for flights and landings on Monday September 2.”

The leader of Histadrut, which is Israel’s largest trade union, urged other organizations to join the strike, calling on them to “shout the cry of the hostages.” He stressed the need for a hostage deal and argued that political considerations are stalling progress.

Bar-David also called for an end to societal divisions, warning that Israel is no longer united and must return to a “sensible routine.”

Remember: The Israel Defense Forces said Saturday that it located and recovered the bodies of six hostages killed by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and returned them to Israeli territory.

That has led to fresh anger at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for failing to secure a deal for the release of the hostages.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents the families of those captured by Hamas, has said “the delay in signing the deal has led to their deaths and those of many other hostages.”

Thousands of Israelis, including the families of hostages, attend the rally in support of the hostages that are still being held by Hamas in Gaza, outside 'The Hostages Square' near Tel-Aviv Museum of Art in Tel Aviv, Israel, on August 31.

The families of American hostages held in Gaza say “enough is enough” after the Israeli military said it found Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages killed by Hamas in Gaza.

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces criticism over not finalizing a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, the families demanded that he reach an agreement.

“We demand Prime Minister Netanyahu close the deal with Hamas and bring the hostages home to their loved ones. It’s well past time to bring all the hostages home. Sagui, Omer, Edan, and Keith need to come home now. We need to bring Judy, Gadi, and Itay home and lay them to rest. For the 101 remaining hostages and their families, this nightmare needs to end,” they wrote.

Top US adviser speaks with families: Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, met virtually Sunday with family members of Americans still held hostage in Gaza, according to a readout from the White House.

“Sullivan discussed?the ongoing diplomatic push across the highest levels of the U.S. government to drive towards a deal that secures the release of the remaining hostages,” the readout states. “He?emphasized?President Biden’s and his Administration’s deep commitment to bring the families’ loved ones home as soon as possible.”??

This post has been updated with details of Jake Sullivan’s call with the families.

CNN’s Samantha Waldenberg and Kevin Liptak contributed reporting to this post.

A child is vaccinated within the polio vaccination campaign covering more than 640,000 children under the age of 10, in Deir al Balah, Gaza on September 1, 2024.

United Nations tents have been erected outside the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in Gaza on Sunday, as children accompanied by relatives stand in line to get polio vaccinations.

UNRWA, the main UN agency in?Gaza, has set targets to immunize 640,000 children against polio in the war-torn enclave, facilitated by a?series of pauses in fighting?agreed to by Israel. This equates to over 90% of children under the age of 10.

A CNN journalist on the ground saw children entering the tents one by one to get their vaccinations. Once done, nurses wrote down their names and drew markers on the children’s fingers as a sign of being vaccinated.

Waiting in line with her three children, Wafa Ubeid told CNN she is scared about the future and hopes that the campaign could be the start of a wider effort to allow people to return to what’s left of their homes.

The UN effort is set to be carried out over three, three-day periods, spanning September 1 to September 12. The UNRWA says it is critical that there will be no fighting during the polio vaccination campaign.

“It’s been an extremely complex vaccination campaign, probably one of the most difficult we’ve seen in the world. We have had ongoing bombardment. These have stopped this morning. It’s quite quiet now. We’re hopeful that this will last throughout the campaign,” she told CNN.

Wateridge said aid workers have been relieved at the successful start to the vaccination campaign, and hope the pauses in fighting will hold.

The municipality of Tel Aviv-Jaffa in Israel will participate in a half-day strike on Monday, in solidarity with the hostages and their families following the recovery of the bodies of six hostages killed in Gaza.

Protesters across Israel have called for a general strike to apply pressure to the government to secure a hostage deal.

“Eden, Carmel, Hersh, Ori, Almog and Alex should have been at home now. Alive,” Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai said in a post on X Sunday referring to the hostages, and urging people to “take to the streets.”

“Tomorrow, starting in the morning until noon, there will be no municipal public services and we will allow all employees to go out and support the families’ fight,” Huldai said.

Israeli police search the area where a vehicle opened fire to an Israeli police car and killed 3 policemen at Tarqumiyah district of Hebron, West Bank on September 1.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it has killed one of the assailants involved in an attack on Israeli police officers in the occupied West Bank earlier Sunday.?

Three police officers were killed when their vehicle came under fire on a highway near Hebron.

In a joint statement with the Shin Bet security service, the IDF said they had surrounded “a house in Hebron where the terrorist suspected of carrying out the shooting attack” was apparently holed up.?

The man was killed on the spot, it said.

Some context: The attack occurred on a highway near Tarqumiyah. Police said the three were shot from a passing vehicle while traveling along the route.

“Numerous police and IDF forces quickly arrived at the scene and initiated extensive searches for the terrorists, who fled the area,” the police said.

One of the three police officers killed in the attack Sunday has been identified as Roni Shakuri, whose daughter – also a police officer – was killed on October 7 when Hamas attacked southern Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it struck a Hamas control center embedded in a school in Gaza City on Sunday.?

The IDF said that the air force struck “Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control center embedded inside the area that previously served as the ‘Safad’ school in Gaza City.”

It said that the center was “used by Hamas terrorists to plan and carry out terror attacks against the IDF and the State of Israel.”?

The IDF asserted that prior to the strike, “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians.”

More than 40,000 Palestinians?have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the health ministry in the enclave.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to reporters on July 24, in Washington, DC.

Despite weekly, sometimes daily, protests in Tel Aviv’s renamed Hostages Square and in other cities across Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not been moved to do what multiple opinion polls show a majority of Israelis favor. This is, namely, making the return of the more than 100 hostages held in Gaza (around one-third of whom are believed to be dead) his top priority.

Netanyahu has long said he has three overriding goals in the war with Hamas. One specific red line, though, has now emerged: the so-called Philadelphi Corridor, a 14 kilometer-long (8.7 mile) strip of land separating Gaza from Egypt. Netanyahu is insisting on Israeli troops remaining there to prevent weapons-smuggling to Hamas, clashing on Thursday with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

This in itself infuriated many families of hostages. Learning that the bodies of their loved ones were discovered “shortly” before Israeli troops got to them on Saturday angered them more. News that at least three of them were slated to be released in the first phase of a mooted ceasefire deal has left them apoplectic and heartbroken.

So what now? Despite all the optimistic pronouncements of US President Joe Biden and others, a hostage-ceasefire deal remains elusive.

Netanyahu is no doubt mindful that his far-right coalition partners have threatened to bring down his government if he does any deal. Yet after nine months of on-off talks, many people are concluding that Netanyahu doesn’t want one.

And that neither, for that matter, does the architect of October 7 attacks, Hamas leader Yahya?Sinwar, who, perhaps in a tunnel near to where six young Israelis’ lifeless bodies were discovered on Saturday, sees the regional war he hoped to spark that day getting closer to becoming a reality.

Israeli police search the area where a vehicle opened fire to an Israeli police car and killed 3 policemen at Tarqumiyah district of Hebron, West Bank on September 1.

Three Israeli police officers were killed in a shooting in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, according to Israeli police spokesperson Dean Elsdunne.

A man and a woman, both in their 30s, were killed in the shooting, Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency service said in a statement. The third person, a man approximately 50 years old, was critically injured and transported to hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, according to MDA.

Police said the three killed on Sunday were shot from a passing vehicle while traveling along a highway near Tarqumiyah. The Israeli military said “terrorists arrived at the area” of the junction and fired at a vehicle, prompting a search by security forces for the attackers.

“Numerous police and IDF (Israel Defense Forces) forces quickly arrived at the scene and initiated extensive searches for the terrorists, who fled the area,” the police said.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Hamas said that it was a “heroic” operation and “a natural response to the heinous massacres and genocide in the Gaza Strip and the Zionist crimes in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem” in a statement Sunday.

Alexander Lobanov.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken with the parents of Alexander Lobanov, one of the hostages whose bodies were recovered by the Israeli military in Gaza on Saturday.

According to Netanyahu’s office, the prime minister “expressed deep sorrow” and apologized to Lobanov’s family for “the fact that the State of Israel failed to return the late Alexander and the other five hostages alive.”

Netanyahu told Oksana and Gregory, Lobanov’s parents: “I want to tell you how sorry I am and apologize for not being able to bring Sasha back alive,” according to his office. Sasha is a common nickname for Alexander.

The prime minister’s military secretary, Brig. Gen. Roman Goffman, has returned from a visit to Moscow “in order to promote the hostage deal,” Netanyahu’s office said.

Netanyahu has talked and will talk with other families throughout Sunday, his office said.

Palestinians in Gaza City mourn their relatives who were killed by an Israeli attack on August 31.

At least 47 people have been killed and at least?94 have been injured due to Israeli military operations in Gaza in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health in the enclave said Sunday.

“A?number?of?victims?are still under the rubble?and on the roads,?and?ambulance?and civil defense crews cannot reach them,” the ministry said.

At least 40,738 people have been?killed and 94,154?injured as a result of Israeli military operations in Gaza since October 7, the enclave’s health authorities said Sunday.

The health ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its figures but says most of the dead are women and children. CNN cannot independently verify the ministry’s numbers.

A number of protests are taking place across Israel following the recovery of the bodies of six hostages in Gaza, with demonstrators’ anger directed at the government’s handling of the crisis.

Protests have occurred or are ongoing in Tel Aviv, Ra’anana, Rehovot and Be’er Sheva.

In several instances, protesters have blocked roads – demanding an immediate agreement to secure the remaining hostages’ release.

The banner at one protest read: “Look them in the eyes.”

The Hostages Families Forum has called for demonstrations across Israel following the retrieval by the Israeli military of the bodies of six hostages in Gaza.

The Forum said that a demonstration would be held at the time the Cabinet was due to meet, 9 a.m. ET, in Jerusalem. There would also be a vigil honoring the “hostages murdered in Gaza by Hamas” in Tel Aviv at 6 p.m. local time (11 a.m. ET) and a rally at Begin Gate, outside the government headquarters in Tel Aviv in the following hour.

Two sisters of one of the remaining hostages – Liri Albag – have called on people to come out in support of the hostages’ families.

Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

“Happy-go-lucky” Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the most recognizable of the hostages who remained in Gaza, has been confirmed as one of the six captives whose bodies were recovered from the enclave on Saturday night.

The deaths have sparked fresh heartbreak and horror for the hostage families who fear that time is running out for their loved ones seized by Hamas, as pressure grows on the Israeli government to secure a ceasefire agreement

Banners and murals demanding to bring Goldberg-Polin home have often been displayed in Jerusalem and his parents Rachel and Jonathan have regularly met top US officials in Washington to press the case of the hostages.

Goldberg-Polin, then 23, was kidnapped from the Nova music festival during Hamas’ October 7 attacks on Israel when more than 1,200 people died and more than 200 people were taken hostage.

A firsthand account from a young woman, who was in a bunker with him when Hamas attacked, said he had helped to throw grenades out, before his arm was blown off from the elbow down. The first proof that he survived his capture came in a video released by Hamas in April, which showed him with part of his left arm missing several inches above the hand.

His mother, Rachel Goldberg-Polin told CNN in January that she wears a piece of tape marking each day that has passed since he was snatched by Hamas fighters. He had been set to go on a round-the world trip starting December 27, 2023.

Read more about Hersh Goldberg-Polin here.

The headquarters of the Hostage Families Forum has responded to a statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying: “Stop blaming everyone. Take responsibility for your failures.”

The Forum demanded Sunday that Netanyahu “take responsibility for the thwarting (of a deal). Take responsibility for the neglect. Take responsibility for the hostages who were murdered in captivity.”

In his statement, Netanyahu blamed Hamas for blocking a deal that would lead to the release of hostages in Gaza.

The Forum said Netanyahu had ignored the views of the security establishment in insisting on conditions in the negotiations.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres speaks during a Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East in New York on April 14.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called for “the unconditional release of all hostages and an end to the nightmare of war in Gaza,” after Israel’s military said it had recovered the bodies of six hostages, including Israeli-American captive Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

“I will never forget my meeting last October with the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin and other hostage families,” Guterres said in a post on X.

“Today’s tragic news is a devastating reminder of the need for the unconditional release of all hostages and an end to the nightmare of war in Gaza,” he added.

Goldberg-Polin became one of the most recognizable faces of the hostage crisis.

The Israeli military said his body was found “brutally murdered” alongside five other hostages in Hamas-run tunnels under the city of Rafah and that they were killed “a short while” before troops were able to reach them.

Two Israel officials later told CNN that three of the six hostages whose bodies were recovered in southern Gaza were expected to be released during the first phase of an eventual ceasefire agreement. Goldberg-Polin was among them.

Protesters call for the release of Israeli hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, on August 31.

Protests have begun across Israel as anger at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mounts for failing to secure the release of hostages still held in Gaza,?after the announcement that the bodies of six hostages were recovered from the enclave.

Demonstrators blocked the road near the Weizmann institute in Rehovot, demanding an immediate deal to secure the release of hostages still held in Gaza.

Dozens of high school students from various schools in the Tel Aviv area were marching to Hostage Square in the middle of the city.?

And in Milan square in Tel Aviv, protesters blocked traffic, and read the names of the hostages in Gaza, also demanding a deal now.

Ra’anana junction – some 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Tel Aviv – was also blocked by a sit-in.

The?protests?began after the Hostages Families Forum Headquarters said in a message late Saturday night that it was calling on the public to demonstrate for a deal that would win the release of hostages.

“Netanyahu abandoned the hostages,” it added.

Former Israeli hostage Ilana Gritzewsky speaks in a video message.

Former Israeli hostage Ilana Gritzewsky, who was released from captivity last year, has said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “murders the hostages” by refusing a deal.

On Sunday, Netanyahu accused Hamas of killing the six hostages whose bodies were recovered from Gaza and said that “those who murder hostages do not want a deal,” adding that Israel would continue to pursue the militant group.

Gritzewsky was kidnapped from her home in Nir Oz along with her partner Matan Zangauker on October 7. Zangauker is still being held captive in Gaza.?

In the video message Gritzewsky stressed the need for a deal, “now before it is too late,” urging people to join the demonstrations on behalf of the hostages.

Carmel Gat.

The community in southern Israel where one of the hostages found dead in Gaza was a resident says she could and should have returned home alive.?

Kibbutz Be’eri said it mourned and “is heartbroken upon learning of the murder of Carmel Gat in the captivity of Hamas.”

Gat turned 40 while held hostage, it said.?

The Kibbutz recalled that on October 7, Carmel Gat’s mother was killed and her father “miraculously saved.”

Just before she was abducted, the Kibbutz said, “Carmel returned from a two-month trip to India, a country that was a second home to her.”?

Others “held captive with her say that she used to initiate yoga and meditation exercises and thanks to her they managed to maintain a shadow of sanity.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, on July 13.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of killing the six hostages whose bodies were recovered from Gaza, in his first statement in light of the development, and said that “those who murder hostages do not want a deal.”

In a taped message Sunday, Netanyahu said he had been shocked to the core by what he said was “the terrible cold-blooded murder of six of our hostages.”

He said Israel would continue to pursue Hamas, and accused it of not wanting to conduct genuine negotiations since December.

The prime minister added that “Israel is conducting intensive negotiations with the mediators in a supreme effort to reach a deal, Hamas continues to firmly refuse any proposal.”

But Netanyahu is already facing backlash from inside Israel as anger swells over the failure to strike a ceasefire deal, and as stark disagreements between the prime minister and his military leaders increasingly spill out into the open.