Israel says it recovered bodies of 6 hostages in Gaza

JERUSALEM – Israeli forces recovered the bodies of six Israeli hostages from the southern Gaza Strip in an overnight operation, the Israeli military said Tuesday, highlighting the plight of the scores of captives remaining in the Palestinian enclave. Five of the six were previously known to have lost their lives.

Of the roughly 250 people Israeli authorities say were taken hostage during the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack, Israeli forces have rescued only seven hostages alive. Scores of others, mostly women and children, were returned to Israel during a weeklong cease-fire in November. More than 100 captives still remain in Gaza, at least 30 of whom are believed to be dead.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the six bodies had been retrieved from Hamas tunnels beneath the city of Khan Younis in a “complex operation,” and the military released their names.

Avraham Munder, 79, was the only hostage among the six whose deaths had not been established. He was abducted from Nir Oz, a kibbutz, or communal village, near the Gaza border, along with three of the others: Haim Peri, 80; Yoram Metzger, 80; and Alexander Dancyg, 75. The remaining two, Nadav Popplewell, 51; and Yagev Buchshtab, 35, were taken from another border community, Nirim.

The exact circumstances of their deaths were not immediately clear. Abu Ubaida, a spokesperson for Hamas’ military wing, said in March that Metzger and Peri were among seven hostages who had been killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. Hamas then said in May that Popplewell had died from injuries sustained in an Israeli airstrike more than a month before.

Weeks later, the Israeli military said it was examining the possibility that the three hostages had been killed while Israeli forces were operating in the Khan Younis area.

On Tuesday, the military said the operation to extricate the six bodies came after prolonged combat in a built-up area. The military said Israeli forces found a 30-foot-deep tunnel shaft that led to an underground route, along which they neutralized obstructions, blast doors, weapons, explosives and militants’ hideouts, the statement said.

The military said Israeli forces scanned the route and noticed that part of the tunnel’s concrete lining was loose. When soldiers removed the lining, they discovered a hidden branch of the tunnel network and found the bodies.

A spokesperson for the Israeli military, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, said the tunnel was under an area previously designated as part of the humanitarian zone of Khan Younis. The Israeli military has shrunk that zone repeatedly as it presses its assault.

The retrieval of the bodies came as Secretary of State Antony Blinken continued a diplomatic push in the region for a cease-fire deal that would see hostages released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. Frustration has grown in Israel over the months of halting negotiations, and family members of the hostages still in Gaza have led regular protests demanding a deal to secure their freedom.

Mati Dancyg, Alexander Dancyg’s son, said he believed there had been opportunities to get his father out of Gaza alive. He accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prioritizing political considerations over the hostages’ return under pressure from key members of his governing coalition who oppose a cease-fire deal, considering it a surrender to Hamas.

“It is absolutely clear to me that it was possible to bring him back home,” Mati Dancyg said Tuesday on Kan, Israel’s public radio network, adding, “Netanyahu chose to sacrifice the hostages.”

Netanyahu has blamed Hamas for obstructing a deal. His critics in Israel, as well as Hamas officials, say that Netanyahu recently added new conditions to a proposal outlined by President Joe Biden in late May, adding to the difficulty of finalizing a deal.

“Our hearts grieve over the terrible loss,” Netanyahu said in a statement Tuesday following the military’s announcement about the retrieval of the bodies. “The state of Israel will continue to make every effort to return all of our hostages – the living and the deceased.”

The Hostages Families Forum, an organization that represents many of the hostages’ relatives, said in a statement Tuesday that “Israel has a moral and ethical obligation to return all the murdered for dignified burial and to bring all living hostages home for rehabilitation.”

“The immediate return of the remaining 109 hostages,” it added, “can only be achieved through a negotiated deal.”