American-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was found dead in August along with five other hostages in a tunnel in Gaza, was likely one of the hostages Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar had kept as human shields, Israel’s Army Radio reported Thursday.
A body that is likely to have been that of Sinwar was found by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers after they fired at a building in which three terrorists were believed to have been hiding.
While the body was taken to Israel for DNA testing, external signs that the dead terrorist was Sinwar were immediately apparent, including his physical appearance and the watch on his wrist, according to reports.
Sinwar was thought to have surrounded himself with terrorists to prevent Israel from killing him in an airstrike. Israel’s Army Radio reported Thursday that it is now believed that the six hostages who were murdered in a tunnel in late August, as the IDF closed in on their position, were in fact Sinwar’s human shields, including Goldberg-Polin.
Army Radio military correspondent Doron Kadosh reported that it is now believed that Sinwar abandoned the hostages and began moving about independently. Social media sources speculated that he was trying to flee Gaza.
Families of the remaining 101 Israeli hostages — at least half of whom are thought to be alive — pressed the Israeli government Thursday to use Sinwar’s death as an opportunity to press Hamas for a deal to release them.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.