The Israeli military said its forces recovered the bodies of six hostages in an overnight operation in southern Gaza
| Photo Credit: AFP

The Israeli military said on Tuesday (August 20, 2024) that it recovered the bodies of six hostages taken in Hamas’ October 7 attack that started the war in Gaza, as U.S. and Arab mediators tried to advance an agreement to halt the fighting and release scores of other militant-held captives.

The military said its forces recovered the bodies in an overnight operation in southern Gaza, without saying when or how the six died. A forum for hostage families said they were kidnapped alive. Hamas says some captives have been killed and wounded in Israeli airstrikes.

The recovery is a blow to Hamas, which hopes to exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners, an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a lasting cease-fire. But it was also likely to increase pressure on Israel’s government to reach a deal to release dozens of hostages who are still believed to be alive.

The military said it had identified the remains of Haim Perry, 80; Yoram Metzger, 80; Avraham Munder, 79; Alexander Dancyg, 76; Nadav Popplewell, 51; and Yagev Buchshtav, 35. Metzger, Munder, Popplewell and Buchshtav had family members who were also abducted but freed during a November cease-fire.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the recovery effort and said “our hearts ache for the terrible loss.”

“The State of Israel will continue to make every effort to return all of our hostages — both alive and dead,” he said in a statement.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also praised the operation, which he said had been carried out inside Hamas’ vast tunnel network. There were no immediate reports of any casualties among Israelis or Palestinians in the recovery operation.

Hamas is still believed to be holding around 110 hostages captured in the October 7 attack. Israeli authorities estimate around a third of them are dead.

Mr. Blinken, who is on his ninth visit to the region since the start of the war, said on Monday (August 19, 2024) that Netanyahu has accepted a proposal to bridge gaps in the cease-fire talks, which have dragged on for months, and called on Hamas to do the same.

Hamas has accused the United States of embracing Israeli demands and trying to impose them on the militant group.

Hamas-led militants burst through Israel’s defenses on Oct. 7 and rampaged across the south, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage. Over 100 hostages were released in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel during a weeklong cease-fire last year.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were militants. Air and ground operations have caused widespread destruction and forced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents to flee their homes, often multiple times. Aid groups fear the outbreak of diseases like polio.

The mediators have been trying to finalize a proposal for a three-phase process in which Hamas would release all the hostages in return for the release of more Palestinian prisoners, an Israeli withdrawal from the territory and a lasting truce.

But there still appear to be wide gaps between the two sides, including Israel’s demand for lasting control over two strategic corridors in Gaza, which Hamas has rejected.

Shujaiya, Gaza:

Heavy battles and bombardment hit Gaza City’s Shujaiya district for a fourth day on Sunday, months after the Israeli army declared Hamas’s command structure dismantled in the northern area.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled the devastated neighbourhood, where the army said it has fought Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives both “above and below ground” in tunnels.

The military said troops had “eliminated several terrorists, located weapons and conducted targeted raids on booby-trapped combat compounds” over the past 24 hours while the air force had “struck dozens” of the operatives’ infrastructure sites.

It also reported clashes in central Gaza and the southern Rafah area, a week after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that the “intense phase” of the war raging since October 7 was nearing an end.

The United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA estimated that “60,000 to 80,000 people were displaced” from Shujaiya since new fighting broke out there on Thursday and the army issued evacuation orders.

Months of on-and-off talks towards a Gaza truce and hostage release deal have meanwhile made little progress, with Hamas saying Saturday there was “nothing new” in a revised plan presented by US mediators.

United States President Joe Biden late last month outlined what he called an Israeli plan for a six-week truce and exchange of some hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

Washington last week presented “new language” for parts of the proposed deal, according to US news site Axios.

A Hamas official in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, confirmed that the Islamist movement had received the latest proposal but said it presented “no real progress in the negotiations to stop the aggression”.

Hamdan labelled the proposals “a waste of time” that aimed to give “additional time for the occupation (Israel) to practise genocide”.

‘Everything is rubble’

The war started with Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

The Hamas also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza although the army says 42 are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,877 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

Six more people were killed in an air strike at dawn targeting a family house in Rafah, said medics at Nasser Hospital where the bodies were taken.

Artillery shelling also struck southern areas of Rafah city, witnesses said.

United Nations and other relief agencies have voiced alarm over the dire humanitarian crisis and threat of starvation the war and Israeli siege have brought for Gaza’s 2.4 million people.

“It’s really unbearable,” said Louise Wateridge from UNRWA, the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees, speaking Friday after returning to the city of Khan Yunis.

“Everything is rubble,” she said. “And yet people are living there again… There’s no water there, there’s no sanitation, there’s no food. And now, people are living back in these buildings that are empty shells.”

In Israel, thousands of protesters again took to the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday night, demanding greater efforts to return the remaining captives, and calling for early elections.

Former hostage Noa Argamani, 26, who was rescued in a special forces raid on June 8, said in a video address that “we can’t forget about the hostages who are still in Hamas captivity, and we must do everything possible to bring them back home”.

‘An obliterating war’

The Gaza conflict has also led to soaring tensions on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where the army has traded cross-border fire with the Hezbollah movement since October.

Hezbollah is part of the “axis of resistance” of Iran-backed armed groups against Israel and its Western allies. The grouping also includes operatives in Iraq and Yemen’s Huthi rebels.

Israel’s military said this month that its plans for a Lebanon offensive had been “approved and validated”, prompting Hezbollah to respond that no part of Israel would be spared in a full-blown conflict.

Iran’s mission to the UN, on social media Saturday, said it “deems as psychological warfare the Zionist regime’s propaganda about intending to attack Lebanon”.

It also warned its arch foe that, “should it embark on full-scale military aggression, an obliterating war will ensue”. 

“All options, incl. the full involvement of all Resistance Fronts, are on the table.”

Iran, which backs Hamas, has praised the October 7 attack as a success but has denied any involvement.

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