Israeli forces have rescued the bodies of three hostages taken by Hamas from the Nova music festival on October 7, the IDF’s chief military spokesperson has confirmed.
Daniel Hagari identified the three hostages as Shani Louk, Amit Buskila and Yitzhak Gelernter, who he said “were murdered by Hamas and taken to Gaza” after being captured at the festival.
All three were killed while fleeing the Nova music festival, an outdoor dance party near the Gaza border, where militants killed hundreds of people, he said at a news conference.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the military operation on Friday and reiterated a pledge to return all the hostages.
He called the deaths "heartbreaking".
“We will bring back all our hostages, whether they are alive or dead,” he said in a statement.
The military said the bodies were found overnight, without elaborating, and did not give immediate details on where they were located.
Israel has been operating in the Gaza Strip's southern city of Rafah, where it says it has intelligence that hostages are being held.
A photo of Ms Louk, 22, being carried in the back of a pickup truck was shared across the world in the aftermath of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel.
Around 1,200 Israelis were killed and 150 abducted when Hamas militants crossed the Gaza border and opened fire on a music festival and several border villages.
Israel’s military operation in Gaza launched in response to the October 7 attack has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
The bombardment has displaced most of Gaza's 2.3 million population, laid waste to the coastal enclave and caused a deep humanitarian crisis.
Mr Netanyahu has vowed to both eliminate Hamas and bring all the hostages back, but he has made little progress.
He is also facing pressure to resign, and the US has threatened to scale back its support over the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Israel says that around 100 hostages are still captive in Gaza, along with the bodies of 30 more.
The IDF did not give immediate details on where the bodies of the three hostages were found.
Israel has been operating in the strip's southern city of Rafah, where it has said it has intelligence that hostages are being held.
In other developments, Israeli tanks and warplanes continued to bombard parts of Rafah on Friday, while the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they were firing anti-tank missiles and mortars at forces massing to the east, southeast and inside the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
UNRWA, the main UN aid agency for Palestinians, said more than 630,000 people had fled Rafah since the offensive began on May 6
