Israel army says retrieved bodies of six hostages from Gaza

The Israeli army said on Tuesday it retrieved the bodies of six hostages from Gaza’s southern area of Khan Younis in a joint operation with internal security agency Shin Bet.

The hostages were Yagev Buchshtab, Alexander Dancyg, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell, Chaim Perry, previously announced dead, and Avraham Munder, whose kibbutz of Nir Oz near Gaza announced his death earlier Tuesday.

Following intelligence and forensic analysis, the families of the dead hostages have been informed, the military said in a statement, without giving details of the operation in Khan Younis.

The recovery of the bodies “provides their families with necessary closure and grants eternal rest to the murdered,” campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.

The forum called on the Israeli government to ensure that the remaining hostages are also returned to Israel in a negotiated deal.

“The Israeli government, with the assistance of mediators, must do everything in its power to finalize the deal currently on the table,” it said.

Mediators Egypt, Qatar and the United States are urging Israel and Hamas to agree a ceasefire deal that would help secure the release of remaining hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli kibbutz Nir Oz announced the death of Munder, 79.

“Kibbutz Nir Oz announces with great sadness the murder of the late Avraham Munder, 79, in captivity in Gaza after suffering physical and mental torture for months,” the community said in a statement.

Among the six bodies released Tuesday, Metzger, Perry and Dancyg also hailed from Nir Oz, a community near Gaza that was particularly hard hit by the October 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israel.

Palestinian militants abducted Munder, his wife, daughter and grandson that day.

The other family members were released during the single, week-long truce of the war last November, while his son was killed on the day of the attack.

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Out of 251 people taken hostage that day, 105 are still being held hostage inside the Gaza Strip, including 34 the military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed 40,139 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.

Most of the dead in Gaza are women and children according to the UN human rights office.