The Israeli military said Tuesday it had found the bodies of six hostages who had been taken to Gaza after Hamas-led terror attacks on October 7.
The Israeli Defense Forces said in a statement that its forces found the bodies in a night operation in the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
The operation comes as the United States, Egypt and Qatar seek to reach a ceasefire agreement that would end Israel’s months-long assault on Gaza and see the release of hostages still being held in the territory.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed optimism on Monday, saying he had a “very productive” meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said Netanyahu had accepted an interim proposal for a ceasefire and that “now it’s incumbent on Hamas to do the same.”
Blinken arrived in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, early Tuesday morning.
The Israeli military said it had identified the remains of Haim Perry, 80, Yoram Metzger, 80, Avraham Munder, 79, Alexander Dansing, 76, Nadav Popplewell, 51, and Yagiv Buchstaf, 35.
Metzger, Munder, Popplewell and Bukhtav also had family members abducted but were released during the November ceasefire.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry warned in January of concerns for Dansing’s health after he was taken hostage on October 7, saying the then 75-year-old was suffering a “serious heart attack.”
The ministry said he “spent his life teaching about the Holocaust” and was one of the founders of educational trips to Poland for Israeli teenagers.
The uncertain fate of the hostages has added to the pressure on Netanyahu at home and abroad to agree to a deal, while Israel and Hamas have been trading blame for months over who is responsible for stalling the negotiations.
Washington had previously blamed Hamas for blocking progress, but US and foreign officials recently said that new conditions presented by Netanyahu during the negotiations also hindered the efforts.
More than 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza, and about a third of them are believed to have died, according to Israeli officials.
“The State of Israel will continue to make every effort to return all our hostages – the living and the dead,” Netanyahu said in a speech at a ceremony at the presidential palace in Jerusalem. statement Share on X on Tuesday where he offered his condolences to the families of the hostages rescued by Israeli forces.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant praised the operation, which he said was carried out inside Hamas’s vast tunnel network. There were no immediate reports of Israeli or Palestinian casualties in the recovery operation.
Meanwhile, the death toll in Gaza has continued to rise, with more than 40,000 people killed and thousands more wounded, according to local officials, since Israel launched its offensive. The offensive follows Hamas attacks on October 7 that killed some 1,200 people, marking a major escalation in a decades-long conflict.
Israel has been accused at the International Court of Justice of committing genocide in its ongoing assault on Gaza, a charge that both Israel and the United States have rejected.
The Israeli military said Tuesday it carried out a “precision strike” targeting what it described as a Hamas command and control center “embedded and hidden” inside a school in Gaza City.
“Prior to the strike, many steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harm to civilians, including the use of precision munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence,” the IDF said.
This comes just weeks after Israel faced international outrage after nearly 100 people, including children, were killed in a deadly airstrike it said targeted Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants at another school in Gaza City.
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