(New York, N.Y.) — Today, Counter Extremism Project (CEP) Chief Executive Officer Ambassador Mark D. Wallace and CEP President Frances F. Townsend released the following statement regarding the recent executions by Hamas of six Israeli hostages, four men and two women: Ori Danino (25); Carmel Gat (40); Hersh Goldberg-Polin (23); Alexander Lobanov (32); Almog Sarusi (27); and Eden Yerushalmi (24). Of the 251 hostages taken by Hamas and other Palestinian groups on October 7, 2023, 97 remain inside Gaza, including 33 bodies that Israeli authorities have declared dead.
“Just seven days ago, we rejoiced at the incredible rescue of Qaid Farhan al-Qadi from Hamas captivity—the eighth hostage to be rescued alive. Today, we mourn the deaths of six young men and women who were brutally executed at close range as IDF teams reportedly drew close to their location in a large tunnel complex beneath Rafah and near where al-Qadi was found.
Our sadness at the deaths of these innocent people is fused with a certain anger. Despite endless rounds of negotiations facilitated by Qatar and Egypt, Hamas continues to brutalize almost 100 captives, some 332 days after their abduction on October 7. Several Americans are among them, including 19-year-old Edan Alexander from Tenafly, N.J. One of those murdered by Hamas last week, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was an American-Israeli born in California, whose parents spoke movingly just days ago at the Democratic National Convention.
The fact that Hamas captors chose to kill the hostages rather than simply abandon them, as they did with Farhan al-Qadi, once more lays bare—if more evidence were needed—their unreconstructed sadism. The responsibility for the fate of all hostages, dead and alive, falls squarely upon Hamas, its new overall leader Yahyah Sinwar, who would have likely greenlit the executions, as well as Hamas’s regional state supporters in Qatar.
We therefore once again urge the United States to reserve its ire for Hamas—the sole appropriate target—and to direct its considerable leverage toward Hamas’s Qatari royal family patrons in demanding the immediate and unharmed release of every last hostage.”