Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued an apology to the families of the six hostages found dead over the weekend after being executed by Hamas.
“My heart and the heart of the nation is shattered into pieces,” Netanyahu said at a special press conference on Monday, according to The Jerusalem Post.
The embattled leader of the Jewish state assured that he was working hard on a deal to have the remaining hostages released in the face of widespread criticism over the hostage deaths.
“I ask for your forgiveness that we did not succeed in bringing them home alive,” he said, addressing the slain hostages’ families.
“We were close, but we did not make it.”
The six hostages — US-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Ori Danino, 25, Alex Lobanov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, Eden Yerushalmi, 24 and Almog Sarusi, 27 — were found dead in a tunnel in Rafah by Israeli Defense Force soldiers on Saturday.
They are believed to have been shot to death at close range two to three days before their bodies were discovered.
All of them, except for Gat, were abducted from the Nova music festival during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.
The rare apology from the embattled prime minister comes as the country’s largest union organized a national strike in protest of Netanyahu’s failure to secure a deal to have the remaining hostages released.
Netanyahu said Monday he is working “around the clock, looking for every path possible” to have them returned.
“I have insisted on the return of the maximum number of live hostages,” he said.
It’s believed that some 66 captives are still alive, according to the Jerusalem Post.
The strategic Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow strip that runs along the length of Gaza’s 8.6-mile border with Egypt, is not on the negotiating table with Hamas, Netanyahu emphasized on Monday.
Israel seized control of the area in May. The corridor, which is only about 100 meters wide in some places, is known for its smuggling tunnels that run between Egypt and the Gaza Strip that Hamas utilized to build up its arsenal before launching its assault on Israel last year.
“The moment Hamas understands” that Israel won’t leave that corridor, “we will have a deal,” Netanyahu said.
