Death of Gaza hostages: Israel and Hamas play ‘blame game’ Israel on Sunday said it had recovered the bodies of six hostages in Gaza whose deaths it blamed on Hamas. The Palestinian militant group has meanwhile denied Israel’s claim while a senior Hamas official said the hostages would still be alive if Israel had accepted a US- backed ceasefire proposal. “There is a sort of blame game on what exactly happened to the six hostages,” FRANCE 24 International Affairs Editor Kethevane Gorjestani said in an analysis.