The Israeli military recovered the bodies of six hostages from the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza overnight on Tuesday, according to the Israel Defense Forces and the Prime Minister’s office.
Israel’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine identified the deceased as Yagev Buchshtav, 35; Alexander Dancyg, 76; Avraham Munder, 79; Yoram Metzger, 80; Nadav Popplewell, 51; and Chaim Perry, 80.
“We will continue to operate in order to return all of the remaining hostages back home,” the IDF said in a post on X. “Our hearts are with the families of these victims of Hamas’ terrorism.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the recovery effort and said “our hearts ache for the terrible loss.”
The military did not say how or when the six hostages died. A forum for hostage families said they were kidnapped alive during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, where around 1,200 Israelis were killed and 240 taken hostage, the Associated Press reported.
Hamas says some hostages have been killed and wounded in over 10 months of Israeli airstrikes in the wake of Oct. 7. The death toll in Gaza stands at over 40,000, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry, figures that both the U.S. and U.N. deem credible.
Of the initial 240 hostages, 112 hostages have been returned to Israel alive in prisoner exchanges with Hamas, and an additional four hostages were freed in an IDF rescue operation in June that Palestinian officials say killed more than 200 people.
There were an estimated 116 Israeli hostages remaining in Gaza as of July, according to Amnesty International, though Israeli authorities believe over a third of the remaining hostages are deceased.
The recovery of six bodies on Tuesday comes as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken began his ninth trip to the region since Oct. 7 to press for a ceasefire. Blinken said on Monday that Netanyahu had accepted a proposal to bridge gaps in the ceasefire talks.
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