Illustrative image (The Israeli Defense Forces)
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on May 24 that it recovered the bodies of three more hostages from the northern Gaza Strip in an overnight operation.
Orión Hernández Radoux, 30, Hanan Yablonka, 42, and Michel Nisenbaum, 59, were all killed in the October 7 Hamas-led surprise attack from Gaza, according to new “reliable intelligence” discovered amid the war, the IDF said in a statement. Until recently, there had been no information as to their status and they were believed to be alive.
The bodies of the three were taken from the Mefalsim area, according to the IDF, at the same location where Hamas fighters took four more hostages whose bodies were recovered last week from a tunnel in the Jabalia refugee camp.
The IDF said that the bodies of the three hostages were recovered in a joint operation carried out by the military and Shin Bet, following the analysis of “precise intelligence” that had been obtained in recent days.
After the bodies were identified at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute overnight, family members were notified by military representatives, the IDF added.
It is reported that more than 120 hostages taken by Hamas during the October 7 attack remain in Gaza -not all of them are thought to be alive- after 105 civilians were released from captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released prior to that.
Three hostages have been allegedly freed by Israeli troops alive, and the bodies of 19 hostages have also been recovered, including at least three who were mistakenly killed by the IDF.
Hamas warned more than once that Israeli military operations in Gaza were threatening remaining hostages there. Still, the IDF expanded its operations earlier this month launching an offensive in the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, which hosts more than 1,4 displaced Palestinians, and another in Jabalia.
On May 23, Hamas confirmed that it is holding Colonel Asaf Hamami, 41, captured on October 7, who the IDF had previously reported was killed in the attacks that day.
The group’s military wing, the Izz Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, revealed that Hamami had been wounded during his capture.
Hamami, the commander of the Gaza Division’s Southern Brigade, was believed to have been killed fighting in the defense of Kibbutz Nirim. A video released by Hamas does not specify whether the officer is still alive.
His death was declared by the chief rabbi in December, based on findings obtained by the IDF in Gaza, allowing his family to have a funeral according to Jewish law.
Israel’s failure to resolve the issue of hostages though military or diplomatic means highlights the lack of a real plan for the war in Gaza, which has so far claimed the lives of more than 35,000 Palestinians and left around 80,000 others wounded.
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