JERUSALEM – The Israeli military said Tuesday it had returned the bodies of six hostages taken in the October 7 Hamas attack that started the war in Gaza, as US and Arab mediators tried to resume an agreement to end fighting and free scores of other militants. – taken prisoner.
The military said its forces recovered the bodies in an overnight operation in southern Gaza, without saying when or how the six were killed. A forum for hostage families said they were kidnapped alive. Hamas said several prisoners had been killed and wounded in Israeli airstrikes.
An Israeli airstrike on Tuesday killed at least 10 people in a school shelter in Gaza City, in what the military said was a precision strike on a Hamas command center. Another attack killed a mother and five children in central Gaza.
The recovery of the remains is a blow to Hamas, which hopes to exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners, withdraw from Israel and a lasting ceasefire. But it could also increase pressure on the Israeli government to strike a deal to free the dozens of hostages believed to be alive.
The military said it has identified the remains of Chaim Perry, 80; Yoram Metzger, 80; Abraham Munder, 79; Alexander Dancyg, 76; Nadav Popplewell, 51; and Yagev Buchshtav, 35. Metzger, Munder, Popplewell and Buchshtav have family members who were also abducted but released during the November ceasefire.
Munder’s death was confirmed on Tuesday by Kibbutz Nir Oz, the farming community where he was among 80 residents taken prisoner. He said she died “after months of physical and mental abuse.” Israeli authorities had previously determined that five others had been killed.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the recovery efforts and said “our hearts ache for the terrible loss.”
“The State of Israel will continue to pursue all our ransoms – life and death,” he said in a statement.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also praised the operation, which he said had been carried out in Hamas’ vast network of tunnels. There were no immediate reports of casualties among Israelis or Palestinians in the recovery operation.
Hamas is still believed to be holding around 110 hostages taken in the October 7 attack. Israeli authorities estimate that about a third are dead.
Blinken, who is on his ninth visit to the region since the start of the war, said Monday that Netanyahu had accepted a proposal to bridge the gap in ceasefire talks, which have dragged on for months, and called on Hamas to do the same.
Hamas has accused the United States of pandering to Israel’s demands and trying to impose on the militant group. There still appears to be a wide gap between the two sides, including Israel’s demand for permanent control of two strategic corridors in Gaza, which Hamas has rejected.
Hamas-led militants overran Israel’s defenses on October 7 and attacked in the south, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 hostages. More than 100 hostages were released in exchange for Palestinians jailed in Israel during a ceasefire last week.
Israeli retaliatory strikes have killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which did not specify the number of militants. Air and ground operations have caused widespread destruction and forced the majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents to flee their homes, often multiple times. Aid groups fear outbreaks of diseases such as polio.
The Palestinian Civil Defense, the first responder operating under the Hamas government, said the attack on the Mustafa Hafez school in Gaza City killed at least 10 people and that they were still searching for survivors. About 700 people were said to have taken refuge in the school when it was hit.
The Israeli military said the attack targeted Hamas militants who had set up a command center at the school and planned and launched the attack.
Israeli airstrikes in central Gaza killed five children and their mother, according to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where Associated Press reporters counted the bodies. The hospital said the father, Alaa Abu Zeid, a school teacher, had been detained in Israel for the past nine months.
Mediators have been trying to hammer out a proposal for a three-phase process in which Hamas would release all hostages in return for the release of other Palestinian prisoners, an Israeli withdrawal from the area and a lasting ceasefire.
Blinken traveled to Egypt on Tuesday and is also expected to hold talks in Qatar. The two Arab countries played an important role in the mediation with Hamas.