TEL AVIV, Israel — The bodies of three more hostages who were killed in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks were recovered from the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said Friday, as the CIA chief headed to Europe in a bid to revive cease-fire talks and as the top United Nations court prepared to rule on whether Israel must halt its operations in the Palestinian enclave.
Hanan Yablonka, Michel Nisenbaum, and Orion Hernandez were killed on Oct. 7 at the Mefalsim Intersection and their bodies were taken into Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement Friday morning, citing intelligence.
Their remains were recovered in the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza in a joint overnight operation between the IDF and Israel Security Agency that saw “intense combat” carried out in the area, the military said.
It comes as Israeli forces continue to expand operations within the enclave, with the IDF battling Hamas in parts of northern and central Gaza it previously said troops had cleared of militant fighters.
Israeli troops have also been pushing deeper into Rafah, the city in southern Gaza where more than 1 million people sought refuge during the war, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee and deepening a humanitarian crisis there while testing the Biden administration’s stated red lines.
CIA Director William Burns will hold meetings in Europe in the coming days with the head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency and the prime minister of Qatar in the hope of reviving negotiations for a truce deal that would also secure the release of remaining captives, the Israeli official said.
The official also said that the Israeli government assesses it’s likely the International Court of Justice will not order a complete cease-fire across the Strip when it rules later Friday but may order an end to military operations in Rafah. Israel’s government will study the ruling before making decisions, the official said, but will not accept a court order to end the war against Hamas.
South Africa last week asked the court to demand a halt to the assault on Rafah as part of the country’s ongoing case accusing Israel of genocidal acts in the war, amid mounting international outrage that has left Israel increasingly isolated diplomatically.
Israel and the U.S. have both rejected the accusation of genocide, with Biden doing so again this week after the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor requested arrest warrants for both Israeli and Hamas leaders.
The ICC — based in The Hague, Netherlands — can charge people with war crimes and other related charges. It is separate from the ICJ, which considers cases between states and has no real power to enforce its rulings.
More than 35,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian enclave’s health ministry, in the months since Israel launched its offensive following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, which marked a major escalation in a decadeslong conflict.
Some 1,200 people were killed on Oct. 7, with 250 others taken hostage into Gaza, according to Israeli officials. Around 125 people remain held captive in Gaza, with around a third of them believed to be dead.
In a video briefing Friday, IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Israeli forces would “not stop fighting” to see the hostages returned. “Every decent country in the world would do the same,” he said.
Hernandez, 30, was the partner of Shani Louk, 23, whose body was also recovered from Gaza in an operation earlier this month, said the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents families of hostages held in Gaza. Hernandez was a French-Mexican citizen who had resided in Mexico and he leaves behind a young daughter, the forum said.
French President Emmanuel Macron offered his condolences to Hernandez’s family in a statement on X on Friday, saying: “France remains more than ever committed to the release of all the hostages.”
Nisenbaum was described as a 59-year-old Brazilian-Israeli citizen and father of two daughters from Sderot. He was taken hostage as he tried to rescue his 4-year-old granddaughter who was with her father in the area of Re’im, the forum said.
Yablonka, a 42-year-old father to two children from Tel Aviv, was taken hostage from the Nova music festival, which he had attended with friends.
It was not immediately clear when Israeli officials became aware the trio had been killed on Oct. 7.
Reuven Yablonka, Hanan Yablonka’s father, said Friday that he first found out about his son’s death on social media, prior to being informed by the IDF.
He said he received more than 300 messages, with his daughter later telling him “she didn’t want to say anything but people were sending messages on Telegram that Hanan was killed.”
“When the IDF called at 8:30 to ask if they could come over, we realized it was all true,” he said in an interview with Israeli broadcaster Channel 12. NBC News was not immediately able to reach the families of the three men.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he and his wife were mourning the deaths of the three men as he praised Israeli forces for acting “with great courage in the heart of enemy territory, in order to return them to their families and to the grave of Israel.”
“We have a national and moral duty to do everything we can to return our abducted — the lives and the spaces — and that is what we are doing,” he said.
Raf Sanchez reported from Tel Aviv, and Chantal Da Silva from London.
