Key Points
- Israel says it has recovered the bodies of six hostages from Gaza.
- Campaign groups urge Israel to accept a ceasefire deal to release the remaining hostages.
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken makes his 9th visit to the region since October.
Israel has recovered the bodies of six hostages who were seized during Hamas’ 7 October attack and taken to Gaza, its military has announced.
The hostages were Yagev Buchshtab, Alexander Dancyg, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell, Chaim Perry, previously announced dead, and Avraham Munder, whose kibbutz of Nir Oz near Gaza announced his death earlier on Tuesday.
Their families had been informed following intelligence analysis, the military said in a statement, later adding that the bodies were found on Monday night in a tunnel.
“During the operation, the forces located a tunnel shaft about 10 metres deep leading to an underground tunnel route where the bodies of the hostages were found,” the military said.
Israeli officials had earlier said some of the hostages whose bodies were recovered on Tuesday died during Israeli military operations in southern Gaza.
In a statement on Tuesday night, military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the six “were killed while our forces were operating in Khan Yunis”.
The exact circumstances would be investigated with the findings “presented to the families and the public”, Hagari said.
The families of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza followed by hundreds of supporters march to IDF headquarters after the Israeli military admitted to accidentally killing three hostages. Source: Getty / Middle East Images/ABACA/PA/Alamy
Campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement that the recovery of the hostage’s bodies “provides their families with necessary closure and grants eternal rest to the murdered”.
The forum called on the Israeli government to ensure that the remaining hostages are also returned to Israel in 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.
Mediators Egypt, Qatar and the United States have urged Israel and Hamas to agree a ceasefire deal that would help secure the release of remaining hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Out of 251 people taken hostage on 7 October, 105 are still being held hostage inside the Gaza Strip, including 34 the military says are dead.
Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 40,173 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Both Egypt and Qatar are working alongside the United States to broker a truce, which diplomats say would help avert a wider conflagration that could draw in Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Source: AAP
Antony Blinken’s ceasefire talks
Top US diplomat Antony Blinken arrived Tuesday in Qatar, the latest stop in a Middle East tour aimed at securing a Gaza truce, after urging Hamas to accept a “bridging proposal” for a deal.
Hamas said it was “keen to reach a ceasefire” agreement but protested “new conditions” from Israel in the latest US proposal, which Blinken said Israel had accepted.
On Tuesday, the militant group said comments by Joe Biden that they were backing away from an agreement with Israel were “misleading”.
The US secretary of state, on his ninth regional visit since the Israel-Hamas war began more than 10 months ago, flew from Israel to Egypt on Tuesday for talks with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Sisi told Blinken that “the time has come to end the ongoing war”, warning of the consequences of “the conflict expanding regionally”, according to an official statement.
