Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 331?

The bodies of hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Ori Danino were found in the Gaza Strip, the IDF said on Sunday morning.

The IDF retrieved the bodies of the hostages from a tunnel under the city of Rafah in Gaza.

They were likely slaughtered by Hamas shortly before the IDF got to them in Rafah.

The bodies were found only one kilometer from where Kaid Farhan al-Alkadi, age 52, from Rahat, was found last week.

The IDF and the Shin Bet have arrested approximately 5,000 wanted persons since the start of the war on October 7, Israel's security establishment reported Saturday night. Of these, about 2,000 were identified as members of Hamas.

Since the beginning of the war, the IDF and the Shin Bet have operated in over 11,000 offensive operations and killed more than 600 terrorists in the West Bank alone.

The Air Force has carried out about 70 strikes in the West Bank, and eliminated about 100 terrorists in airstrikes.

The IDF has destroyed 29 homes belonging to terrorists since the beginning of the war.
 

Opposition members of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee addressed a letter to committee chairman MK Yuli Edelstein on Saturday evening, demanding an urgent discussion on the status of achieving the war objectives.

The letter, signed by MKs Gadi Eisenkot, Merav Michaeli, Elazar Stern, Sharon Nir, Ram Ben Barak, and Meir Cohen, cited Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu's "failures to achieve the set war objectives, the refusal to set new objectives, and the acceptance of a series of decisions that endanger Israel's strategic position" as reasons for summoning him before the committee.

The MKs intend to provide the PM with an opportunity to present his plan and the status of achieving his war objectives.

American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin was confirmed dead by his family on their Instagram early on Sunday morning, after his body and the body of others were retrieved from Gaza by the IDF. 

“With broken hearts, the Goldberg-Polin family is devastated to announce the death of their beloved son and brother, Hersh." The Goldberg-Polin family announced.

"The family thanks you all for your love and support and asks for privacy at this time.” 

Goldberg-Polin was born in California, and moved to Israel when he was 7. He was abducted from the Nova music festival on October 7. He received much media attention due to the activism of his parents to free him from captivity. 

His mother in particular was been a central activist in trying to release all of the hostages, and was named to Time’s 2024 annual TIME100 list of most influential people in the world. His parents recently spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to advocate for his release along with the remaining hostages in captivity.

Hersh had a sense of humor

Hersh was described as funny with a dry, dark sense of humor. Hersh was obsessed with soccer and loves electronic music and has a sense of wanderlust that took him on a solo nine week trip through Europe in 2023 not long before October 7.

Hersh's parents had recently traveled towards the Gaza border this week, where she and other families of hostages used giant speakers to call out to their family members.

Hersh Polin Goldberg. (credit: Screenshot/Hamas Telegram)

In April, Hamas released a video of Goldberg-Polin when he was still alive on their Telegram channel, with his arm amputated due to it being blown off in October.

Goldberg-Polin's childhood friend in Chicago, Jeremiah Smith, described him as "the little brother I never had.” The two met when Hersh was just two years old, and Smith, at the age of six, was a student of Hersh’s grandmother, Marcy Goldberg, at a school on Chicago’s near north side. Smith has a truck with digital screens that showed Hersh's face.

“I wouldn’t want nobody else to drive the truck,” Smith said, clutching the Star of David around his neck. “I just want that guy to come home.”

Hannah Sarisohn, Julie Mangurten Weinberg, and Kate Armanini contributed to this report.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert signed an agreement with Nasser al-Qudwa, nephew of former Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, on July 17, 2024, where they agreed to "work together to promote the achievement of peace in the Middle East" through a successful application of the two-state solution with 1967 borders as a basis, according to documents published by N12 on Friday.

The current agreement is based on Olmert's famously mysterious solution presented to Mahmoud Abbas in 2008.

Three Israelis were wounded in two nearby terrorist attacks in the Gush Etzion in the West Bank late Friday night, the IDF announced.

The Hostage Family Forum has published a video implying female hostages were raped and impregnated in captivity, N12 reported Saturday afternoon.

St.-Sgt. Elkana Navon was killed as the army battled with terrorists in Jenin, the IDF announced on Saturday.

In the battles, 14 terrorists were also killed as explosions were heard in the al-Damj neighborhood, according to Maariv.

The IDF has found more bodies underground in Gaza, likely of Israeli hostages who had been held by Hamas, the military announced late Saturday night.

Despite rumors on social media of possible identities of the potential hostage bodies, the IDF will not be able to confirm any specifics until the bodies have been returned to Israel and checked by the relevant professional experts, likely later on Sunday.

Hamas is attempting to pressure Israel to abandon its fundamental principles by warning that the Gaza hostage talks are close to collapse, Israeli sources said Saturday, after the security cabinet voted 8-1 to retain IDF forces in the Philadelphi Corridor in any agreement with the terror group.