After six Israeli hostages were found shot dead in a Gaza tunnel over the weekend, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did something he hadn’t done in 11 months of war — he apologized to the bereaved families.

"I want to tell you how sorry I am and ask for forgiveness for not being able to bring Sasha back alive,” he told the parents of Alexander Lobanov in the first of a series of such phone calls.

The gesture was among signs the discovery may prove to be a turning point in Israel’s long-running conflict with Hamas, after several months of inconclusive cease-fire negotiations.