The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recently recovered the body of Hamas hostage Amit Buskila from the Gaza Strip and brought her back to Israel for burial, seven months after her death. Her last words, “I love you,” were heard during a desperate phone call with her uncle on the day she was killed.

Amit Buskila was a 28-year-old fashion stylist and social media influencer with a passion for cooking. She was at the Supernova desert rave on October 7 when Hamas operatives launched a surprise attack, killing about 1,200 people and taking dozens of hostages to Gaza, as per the Times of Israel.  

During the attack, Amit Buskila called her uncle Shimon and told him she was hiding behind cars as Hamas operatives approached Mefalsim, the place where she had escaped from the rave, reported the outlet.

Her uncle heard Ms Buskila’s last desperate words, “No, no, no,” followed by a faint, “I love you,” the report added.

In addition to Amit Buskila, the IDF found the bodies of two other hostages – Shani Louk, 23, and Itzik Gelenter, 53. In a statement, the IDF announced that the bodies had been recovered in an overnight operation. 

Spokesperson Daniel Hagari stated that the three hostages were brutally murdered when they attempted to escape during the attack, and their bodies were dragged into the Gaza Strip

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was “heartbroken for the great loss,” in a post on X. 

After the October 7 incident, Israel launched an attack in Gaza that has killed more than 35,000 people and left almost 80,000 people wounded till date, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. 

Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, on Saturday released a video of a man held hostage in Gaza by Palestinian operatives and seen alive in the footage.

The man is seen speaking in the 11-second clip, which is superimposed with text in Arabic and Hebrew that reads: “Time is running out. Your government is lying”.

The video posted on the group’s Telegram channel and showing the hostage speaking under duress, was the third time footage released in less than a month of captives held in Gaza.

On April 27 the group released a video showing two hostages alive — Keith Siegel and Omri Miran.

Three days before that it broadcast another video showing hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin alive.

Some 250 people were abducted to the Gaza Strip on October 7 when Hamas operatives attacked southern Israel.

Israeli officials say 128 of them are still held captive in the Palestinian territory, including 36 who are dead.

The attack resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 Israelis and foreigners, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

In Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza, at least 34,971 people have been killed so far, most of them women and children, according the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:
An elderly Israeli hostage who was released by Hamas said she was thrashed by the Gaza-based outfit as she was taken into their territory on October 7, but was then well-treated during her two-week captivity, news agency Reuters reported today.

Here’s your 10-point cheatsheet to this big story