Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said he was seeking forgiveness for failing to save lives of hostages and vowed retaliation. This after six bodies of hostages were recovered from a Gaza tunnel at the weekend.
“I ask for your forgiveness for not bringing them back alive,” Netanyahu said at a televised press conference. “We were close but we didn’t succeed.Hamas will pay a very heavy price for this.”
Earlier in the day, Israel’s president apologised on behalf of the government for failing to protect a 23-year-old US-Israeli hostage whose funeral drew thousands to a Jerusalem cemetery.
“I apologise on behalf of the State of Israel, that we failed to protect you in the terrible disaster of October 7, that we failed to bring you home safely,” Isaac Herzog said during the service, referring to Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel in which Hersh Goldberg-Polin was taken hostage.
“I apologise that the country you immigrated to at the age of 7, wrapped in the Israeli flag, could not keep you safe.”
Directly addressing Goldberg-Polin’s parents, Herzog said: “I want to say how sorry I am. How sorry I am that we didn’t protect Hersh on that dark day.”
The bodies of Goldberg-Polin and fellow hostages Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Ori Danino were recovered by Israeli forces on Sunday, sparking a wave of grief and anger among Israelis deeply affected by one of the most devastating attacks in their nation’s history.
“I ask for your forgiveness for not bringing them back alive,” Netanyahu said at a televised press conference. “We were close but we didn’t succeed.Hamas will pay a very heavy price for this.”
Earlier in the day, Israel’s president apologised on behalf of the government for failing to protect a 23-year-old US-Israeli hostage whose funeral drew thousands to a Jerusalem cemetery.
“I apologise on behalf of the State of Israel, that we failed to protect you in the terrible disaster of October 7, that we failed to bring you home safely,” Isaac Herzog said during the service, referring to Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel in which Hersh Goldberg-Polin was taken hostage.
“I apologise that the country you immigrated to at the age of 7, wrapped in the Israeli flag, could not keep you safe.”
Directly addressing Goldberg-Polin’s parents, Herzog said: “I want to say how sorry I am. How sorry I am that we didn’t protect Hersh on that dark day.”
The bodies of Goldberg-Polin and fellow hostages Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Ori Danino were recovered by Israeli forces on Sunday, sparking a wave of grief and anger among Israelis deeply affected by one of the most devastating attacks in their nation’s history.