The Israeli military said Tuesday that it recovered the bodies of six hostages taken in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack that started the war in Gaza, as U.S. and Arab mediators tried to advance an agreement to halt the fighting and release scores of other militant-held captives.
The military said its forces recovered the bodies in an overnight operation in southern Gaza, without saying when or how the six died.
The military said it had identified the remains of Chaim Peri, 80; Yoram Metzger, 80; Avraham Munder, 79; Alexander Dancyg, 76; Nadav Popplewell, 51; and Yagev Buchshtav, 35. Metzger, Munder, Popplewell and Buchshtav had family members who were also abducted but among about 100 people freed during a weeklong pause in fighting beginning in late November in which some hostages were repatriated.
Munder’s death was confirmed on Tuesday by Kibbutz Nir Oz, the farming community where he was among around 80 residents who were taken captive. It said he died “after enduring months of physical and mental torture.”
Israeli authorities had previously determined that the other five were no longer alive.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the recovery effort and said “our hearts ache for the terrible loss.”
“The State of Israel will continue to make every effort to return all of our hostages — both alive and dead,” he said in a statement.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant also praised the operation, which he said had been carried out inside Hamas’s vast tunnel network. There were no immediate reports of any casualties among Israelis or Palestinians in the recovery operation.
Blinken of U.S. continues push in region for deal
The Hostages Families Forum, an organization that represents most hostage families, welcomed the news but renewed its call on the government to conclude a hostage release deal with the Gaza-based Palestinian militant group Hamas.
“The immediate return of the remaining 109 hostages can only be achieved through 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.
WATCH l Palestinian prisoner list among reported sticking points in deal:
After a weekend of deadly airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel for another attempt to broker a ceasefire with Hamas.
Around one-third of the remaining hostages not yet recorded are believed to be dead, the Israeli government has said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is on his ninth visit to the region since the start of the war, said Monday that Netanyahu has accepted a proposal to bridge gaps in the ceasefire talks, which have dragged on for months, and called on Hamas to do the same.
The mediators have been trying to finalize a proposal for a three-phase process in which Hamas would release all the hostages in return for the release of more Palestinian prisoners, an Israeli withdrawal from the territory and a lasting truce. Blinken travelled to Egypt on Tuesday and was also expected to hold talks in Qatar.
Hamas has accused the United States of embracing Israeli demands and trying to impose them on the militant group. There still appear to be wide gaps between the two sides, including Israel’s demand for lasting control over two strategic corridors in Gaza, which Hamas has rejected.
Deadly airstrike in central Gaza
Hamas-led militants burst through Israel’s defences on Oct. 7 and rampaged across the south, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, including several Canadian citizens.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 40,173 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not say how many were militants, as opposed to civilians.
Air and ground operations have caused widespread destruction and forced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents to flee their homes, often multiple times. Hunger has been acute in the territory and the presence of polio has been detected.
On Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza killed five children and their mother, according to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where an Associated Press reporter counted the bodies. The hospital said the father, Alaa Abu Zeid, a schoolteacher, has been in Israeli detention for the last nine months.