The Israeli military said on Saturday that it had found a number of dead bodies during an operation in the Gaza Strip, asking the Israeli public to refrain from speculation about their identities.
The announcement was widely interpreted in Israel, however, as confirmation that more Israeli hostages had died in captivity, and it quickly amplified calls for an immediate cease-fire in order to free the roughly 100 captives still held, both dead and alive, in Gaza.
Roughly 250 people were captured by Hamas and its allies during their Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which started the war.
The military said in a statement on Saturday that the recently found bodies had yet to be identified and brought to Israel. It did not give further details about how many bodies had been found or where they were discovered, and it would not officially confirm that they were hostages.
Still, the news of the discovery accelerated an increasingly rancorous debate within Israeli society about whether Israel should soften its position during negotiations with Hamas for a cease-fire. Under the terms currently being negotiated, scores of hostages would be released from captivity in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians detained in Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is holding out for a deal in which the country would be able to retain control of strategic parts of Gaza during the cease-fire and restart the war in the future.
That position has angered Israelis who want their leaders to swiftly agree to a deal in order to accelerate the hostages’ release. For months, the families and supporters of the hostages have said that the prolonged negotiations had made it more likely that their relatives would be killed in captivity.
Minutes after the military’s announcement, an umbrella group representing the families of the hostages said in a statement: “Netanyahu abandoned the hostages! This is now a fact.” The statement also called on the public to prepare for new demonstrations starting as soon as Sunday.
More than 100 hostages were freed in an earlier cease-fire in November, while eight have been rescued alive during Israeli rescue operations that have cost the lives of scores of Palestinians. The bodies of several others have also been found and repatriated by the Israeli military. Three were shot and killed in December, after waving a white flag, by Israeli soldiers.
But roughly 100 others are still held in Gaza, about two-thirds of whom are believed to be alive. Mr. Netanyahu’s critics say he is putting those surviving hostages at risk by dragging out the negotiations. Mr. Netanyahu and his allies say that a bad deal would endanger Israel’s long-term security.
President Biden on Saturday evening commented on the Israeli military’s discovery of the bodies in Gaza, but said he did not know the exact number, nor whether the dead were hostages.
There’s a lot of speculation about who they are,” Mr. Biden told reporters, adding that he was “not at liberty to do that at this moment.”
Eight U.S. citizens are among the captives in Gaza, and the United States has sought for months, with Egypt and Qatar, to broker a deal to halt the fighting and exchange hostages and detained Palestinians. Mr. Biden said he was optimistic about those talks, although diplomats have struggled in repeated rounds of talks to settle major disagreements between the parties.
Ronen Bergman and Aishvarya Kavi contributed reporting.
