Gaza Genocide · 31 August, 2026 · 3 outlets · 2 min read
Michal Lobanov Marks Two Years Since Hamas Killed Alex Lobanov And Five Hostages
Image: Ynetnews
How 3 outlets told it
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Two years since murders
Two years after Alex Lobanov was murdered in Hamas captivity alongside Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi and Eden Yerushalmi, his widow Michal Lobanov marked the anniversary by traveling abroad with their two sons, Tom and Kai.
“Time does not heal”
Lobanov said “Time does not heal” and described grief as an “enormous circle of sadness that never ends,” while adding that “Everything is exactly the same as it was on October 6, 2023.”
She said Kai was born while his father was being held hostage in Gaza and that “the hardest thing for me is that Alex never got to raise his children and that the boys don’t get to grow up with a father.”
At a Monday demonstration in Jerusalem, activists from the Women’s Protest held a banner reading “We will not forget. They could have come home alive.”
Protests and accountability
In Jerusalem, activists from the Women Demand Life movement demonstrated in front of the Prime Minister's Residence to mark the two-year anniversary of the return of “The Beautiful Six,” whose bodies were repatriated to Israel after being murdered by Hamas in the Gaza Strip in August 2024.
The Jerusalem Post reported that the protesters said “The prime minister and his aides have been busy covering up and lying since October 7,” and they argued that the prime minister rejected deals that “could have brought them home.”
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum announced the deaths of The Beautiful Six and demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu take responsibility for deaths it said were “entirely preventable.”
In the same Jerusalem reporting, Rachel Goldberg-Polin told the UN that “Hersh will always be my only son,” describing her son Hersh as 23 years old and saying he lost his arm during his kidnapping.
Hostage deaths and aftermath
The accounts of the six hostages’ captivity and deaths center on the October 7 massacre and the Gaza Strip, including Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was abducted from a roadside bomb shelter near Re’im that later became known as the “death shelter.”
“had lost part of his left arm after a grenade thrown by Hamas terrorists exploded inside the shelter”
Ynetnews described that Hamas terrorists forced Goldberg-Polin and three other hostages into a pickup truck, and it said Goldberg-Polin “had lost part of his left arm after a grenade thrown by Hamas terrorists exploded inside the shelter.”
The Jerusalem Post said the Hostages and Missing Families Forum stated that the hostages had been “taken alive, endured the horrors of captivity, and were then coldly murdered,” while also pointing to a “deal for the return of the hostages” that it said had been “on the table for over two months.”
As the families marked the anniversary, the Women’s Protest demonstration in Jerusalem again accused Netanyahu and his aides of failing to take responsibility for events surrounding October 7 and of rejecting hostage deals that could have brought captives home alive.