Government members are engaged in verbal battles in Israel. Violence is breaking out in the West Bank. All developments in the news blog.
12.50 pm: Bundesliga football club Werder Bremen is mourning the loss of the Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin. The 23-year-old was a Werder fan and was kidnapped by the Islamist Hamas on October 7th of last year and taken to the Gaza Strip. According to the Israeli army, his body and that of five other hostages have now been recovered there.
“Our thoughts and our deepest sympathy are with the Goldberg-Polin family, relatives and Hersh’s friends in these difficult hours. Until the very end, we all hoped that Hersh would be released. His flag hangs in front of the Weserstadion,” says an obituary published by Werder.
In recent months, Bremen fans have repeatedly reminded people of Goldberg-Polin and the other hostages kidnapped by Hamas. On Saturday, during the Bundesliga home game against Borussia Dortmund (0:0), a poster reading “Stay strong Hersh” was again hung in the fan block.
12.46 pm: Following the deadly attack on Israeli police officers in the West Bank, calls are growing for tougher measures in the Israeli-occupied territory. The far-right Israeli politician Bezalel Smotrich, who is responsible for finances and settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territories in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, said at the scene of the attack near Hebron: “We are determined to eradicate terrorism on all fronts.”
He calls for tougher action against militant Palestinians. “We must now do what we did not do on that terrible night, namely hit terrorism hard with a preemptive strike,” he said, referring to Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on October 7.
11.13 am: After the recovery of six dead hostages in the Gaza Strip, opposition leader Jair Lapid called for a strike in Israel. This was intended to put pressure on the government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to conclude an agreement to release the remaining hostages. Former Prime Minister Lapid called on his compatriots to take part in a large demonstration in Tel Aviv later that day. He called on the largest Israeli trade union, companies and municipalities to go on strike.
7.54 am: According to Israeli rescue workers, at least three people were killed in a gun attack in the occupied West Bank on Sunday. They were two men and one woman, the Israeli rescue service Magen David Adom said.
Two people, a man and a woman aged around 30, were pronounced dead shortly after the attack east of the Tarkumija checkpoint near the city of Hebron, the emergency services said. A man aged around 50 later died of his serious injuries in hospital. Palestinians had already attacked Israeli settlements in the region on Saturday night.
Israel began a military operation in the northern West Bank on Wednesday. The army justified the action with the significantly increased number of attacks on Israelis. The aim was to take action against Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
6.18 am: The Israeli army has recovered the bodies of six hostages in the Gaza Strip. The military announced this. The previous evening, the army had announced the discovery of several bodies without giving further details.
