24 May 2024 , 20:37
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The bodies of three more Israeli hostages have been recovered from Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have said.
They are those of Hanan Yablonka, Michel Nisenbaum and Orion Hernandez, it said in a statement.
The IDF said the men’s bodies were recovered from the northern town of Jabalia overnight in a joint operation with Israel’s domestic intelligence agency.
It comes one week after three other hostages’ bodies were retrieved from Gaza.
The dead hostages were among 252 people who were taken captive when Hamas gunmen attacked Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people.
There are about 125 still held in Gaza, Israel says.
Hanan Yablonka, 42, and Orion Hernandez, 32, were killed after fleeing from the site of the Nova music festival which was ambushed by the gunmen. More than 360 mainly young people were killed at the festival.
Michel Nisenbaum, 59, was last heard of on his way to get his four-year-old granddaughter who was with her father at an army base on the Gaza border.
Orion Hernandez was the boyfriend of Shani Louk, whose body was among the three recovered last week.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on X: "We have a national and moral duty to do everything we can to return our hostages - the living and the deceased - and that is what we are doing."
Israel relaunched an offensive on Jabalia two weeks ago, months after pulling out, saying Hamas forces had regrouped there.
The attack on 7 October triggered an Israeli military campaign throughout the Gaza Strip with the declared aim of destroying the group and freeing the hostages.
At least 35,800 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.