The Israeli military said Tuesday that it had recovered the bodies of six hostages who were taken into the Gaza Strip following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 terror attacks.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that troops recovered the bodies in an overnight operation in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
The operation came as the United States, Egypt and Qatar pushed for a cease-fire deal that would end Israel’s monthslong military offensive in Gaza and see the release of the hostages who remain held in the enclave.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed optimism Monday, saying he’d had a “very productive” meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said that Netanyahu had accepted a bridging proposal for a cease-fire deal and that it was “now incumbent on Hamas to do the same.”
Hamas on Tuesday expressed “astonishment” at the suggestion that it was holding up a deal, calling the comments by Blinken and President Joe Biden “misleading claims” that “do not reflect the true position of the movement.”
The militant group said that what it was recently presented was a departure from a proposed framework deal outlined by Biden in late May.
The statement came after Blinken arrived in Egypt early Tuesday.
The Israeli military said it had identified the remains of Haim Perry, 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 freed during a November cease-fire.
The Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry had in January warned of fears for Dancyg’s health after he was taken hostage Oct. 7, saying the then-75-year-old had previously suffered a “serious heart attack.”
The ministry said he had “spent his life in Holocaust education” and had co-founded educational trips to Poland for Israeli teens.
The uncertain fate of the hostages has added to pressure on Netanyahu at home and abroad to agree to a deal, while Israel and Hamas have for months traded blame over which side is responsible for holding up negotiations.
Washington has previously blamed Hamas for blocking progress, but U.S. and foreign officials recently said new conditions introduced by Netanyahu during negotiations have also disrupted those efforts.
More than 100 hostages remain held in Gaza, with around a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli officials.
“The State of Israel will continue to make every effort to return all of our hostages — the living and the deceased,” Netanyahu said in a statement shared on X on Tuesday as he offered condolences to the families of the hostages recovered by Israeli forces.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also praised the operation, which he said had been carried out inside Hamas’ vast tunnel network. There were no immediate reports of any casualties among Israelis or Palestinians in the recovery operation.
Meanwhile, the death toll in Gaza has continued to soar, with more than 40,000 people killed and thousands more injured, according to local officials, since Israel launched its offensive. The assault followed Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, in which some 1,200 people were killed according to Israeli officials, marking a major escalation in a decadeslong conflict.
Israel has been accused in the International Court of Justice of genocidal acts in its ongoing offensive in Gaza, an accusation that both Israel and the U.S. have rejected.
The IDF on Tuesday said it had conducted a “precise strike” targeting what it said was a Hamas command control center “embedded and hidden” inside a school in Gaza City.
“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence,” the IDF said.
It comes just weeks after Israel faced international outrage after around 100 people, including children, were killed in a deadly strike it said had targeted Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives at another school in Gaza City.
