Israel retrieved the bodies of six hostages from the Khan Younis area in southern Gaza overnight, according to statements from the military and the prime minister's office on Tuesday.
A combination picture shows undated handout images of Israeli hostages Alex Dancyg, Yoram Metzger, Yagev Buchshtab, Chaim Peri and Abraham Munder and hostage Nadav Popplewell, who were kidnapped in the deadly October 7 attack by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. Courtesy of Bring Them Home Now/The Hostages Families Forum/Handout via Reuters
Israel retrieved the bodies of six hostages from the Khan Younis area in southern Gaza overnight, according to statements from the military and the prime minister's office on Tuesday.
The families of Yagev Buchshtab, Alexander Dancyg, Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell, and Chaim Perry have been informed, the statements added.
The Hostages Families Forum, an organisation that represents most hostage families, welcomed the news but renewed its call on the government to conclude a hostage release deal with the Gaza-based Palestinian militant group Hamas.
"The immediate return of the remaining 109 hostages can only be achieved through a negotiated deal. The Israeli government, with the assistance of mediators, must do everything in its power to finalise the deal currently on the table," it said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in the Middle East this week trying to secure a ceasefire and hostage return agreement between Israel and Hamas.
The current war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas gunmen stormed into Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and abducting about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's military has since levelled swathes of the Palestinian enclave, driving nearly all of its 2.3 million people from their homes, giving rise to deadly hunger and disease and killing at least 40,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Reporting by Maytaal Angel; Editing by Alex Richardson
UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday accused Israel of being “determined to go all the way” in its war in Gaza and unwilling to engage in “serious negotiations” toward a ceasefire. He went further, calling the situation in Gaza “morally, politically and legally intolerable.”
Under U.S. pressure, Syria is accelerating talks with Israel for a security pact that Damascus hopes will reverse Israel's recent seizures of its land but that would fall far short of a full peace treaty, sources briefed on the talks said.
The United Nations Human Rights Council once again turned its session into a platform of anti-Israel propaganda on Tuesday, after High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk condemned Israel for its September 9 strike on Hamas leaders in Doha.
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