Six hostages are dead. Hamas is responsible for not only taking them hostage, but for letting them die in captivity.

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari confirms that the military has declared the deaths of several hostages who were being held in the Gaza Strip.

“We are continuing to invest many intelligence and operational efforts, to bring information on the conditions of the hostages,” Hagari says.

“In the last few days, the IDF and police notified the families of Eliyahu Margalit, Mia Goren, Ronen Engel and Aryeh Zalmanovich of their deaths,” he says.

Their deaths were confirmed as the current cease-fire was broken by Hamas attacking Israelis at a bus station, refusing to release more of the women and children they hold hostage, and by firing rockets against Israel. 

Government spokesman Eylon Levy blamed Hamas for the resumption in fighting.

“Unfortunately, Hamas decided to terminate the pause by failing to release all the kidnapped women as it was obligated to do,” he told reporters. He said the group did not provide a full list of hostages it intended to release Friday. “So having chosen to hold on to our women, Hamas will now take the mother of all thumpings.”

Hamas countered that it was Israel that ended the truce when it rejected a deal in which the militants would release elderly male Israeli hostages and the bodies of three Israeli hostages, including children from the Bibas family, in exchange for elderly Palestinian prisoners.

And just what were the additional demands Hamas was making? Which terrorists were they demanding be freed in exchange for these innocent hostages? Furthermore, would YOU want to keep playing ball with Hamas when they gleefully air video showing how they are torturing Yarden Bibas, whose wife and children are hostages, by forcing him to say it was Israel’s fault his family is dead. 

Which is a huge lie. Israel didn’t take the Bibas family hostage. Israel didn’t kidnap and then sell a 10-month old baby and a four-year old to another terrorist group. HAMAS did all that. And then they reneged on returning those babies and their mother to Israel. 

For all the apologists out there such as college students, feminists who’ve remained silent, and people like Susan Sarandon or The Squad, this is who you are cheering for. 

The images coming out of Gaza are horrific. Netanyahu has resumed his genocidal bombing campaign. We need a permanent ceasefire now. End the apartheid. Free Palestine.

— Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (@RepRashida) December 1, 2023

Keep in mind, Tlaib doesn’t care about the hostages. Likely she’d rather they all die. And now some have. Six souls that we know of died in captivity. 

Zalmanovich was a founder of the kibbutz and a father of two, according to a tribute post.

“Aryeh was a man of the land all his life who was engaged in agriculture and field crops. A man of books and has a wide knowledge of history and knowledge of the country,” the post read.

Goren was a “diligent and dedicated kindergarten teacher and nanny” who “lovingly cared for the kibbutz children for many years,” another post said of the mother of four.

Her husband, Avner Goren, was killed Oct. 7, the day the war started, according to Kibbutz Nir Oz. During the Palestinian terror group’s surprise attack on Israel, kibbutzes such as Nir Oz were raided and many of their residents killed or taken hostage.

Engel was a photographer, a volunteer for Magen David Adom, and a motorcycle enthusiast.

His wife and two daughters were released from captivity earlier this week, the kibbutz said

Late yesterday evening the other two hostages who perished in captivity were named. 

Also among the hostages who did not survive their time in Hamas’ clutches was Ofra Keidar, 70, who cared for her disabled adult daughter. She was abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7 during an early morning walk, the kibbutz announced.

In a Facebook post Friday, Mor Metro-West High School in Ra’anana announced that one of its alumni, Guy Iluz, 26, who was kidnapped during the Supernova music festival near Re’im where more than 360 revelers were massacred by the terror group, had lost his life.

This after Secretary of State Anthony Blinken really stepped in it while discussing the situation with Israel. He arrogantly tried to restrict Israel from A. defending themselves, and B. working to wipe Hamas off the map.

.@hughhewitt says, “Secretary Blinken’s meeting in Israel yesterday where he told Israel that they didn’t have the credit … needed to destroy Hamas followed by that rather disastrous press conference … will go down as one of the worst diplomatic face plants in history.” pic.twitter.com/kttrGYR1Tm

— Washington Post Live (@PostLive) December 1, 2023

The lives of innocents are at stake and Anthony Blinken thinks Israel should stand down? Six souls are dead because Hamas took them into captivity, and Anthony Blinken tried to tell Israel to ‘be careful.’ 

As our own Darleen wrote here, the children who are now returned home thankfully, are bearing witness to the torture they and others have been put through. It was Hamas who burned their legs on exhaust pipes, not Israel. It was Hamas who made those children, and likely others, watch video of the attacks on their family and friends. Not Israel. 

As Deanna wrote here, it was Hamas that attacked Israelis at a bus stop in Jerusalem. And now there are at least two Hamas officials on record calling for more October 7’s. 

Senior Hamas Official Osama Hamdan: I Promise that a War of Liberation Is Coming Soon – Not Just Another October 7 #Hamas #Palestinians #Israel pic.twitter.com/ILSzPEGDc8

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) December 1, 2023

Hamas wants war. They are making that very very clear. The six innocent lives killed by Hamas are just collateral damage in their eyes. And the U.S. is playing into their hands by pushing for Israel to agree to a ceasefire. 

Say their names: Eliyahu Margalit, Mia Goren, Ronen Engel, Aryeh Zalmanovich, Ofra Keidar, and Guy Iluz

Feature Photo Credit: Hadi Mohammad for FARS News Agency via Wikimedia Commons, cropped, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0 DEED)