Israel said Thursday it had recovered the bodies of five hostages killed during the October Hamas attack on Israel.
The Israeli military identified one hostage as Maya Goren, who was killed at Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel.
The other four hostages were Israeli soldiers killed in combat during the attack, the military said. They were identified as Sgt. Oren Goldin, Staff Sgt. Tomer Ahimas, Sgt. Maj. Ravid Aryeh Katz and Sgt. Kiril Brodski.
Hamas took the bodies of all five people into Gaza, where Israeli forces conducted an operation to recover them in the southern city of Khan Younis, the military said.
Hamas killed about 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage during the October 7 attack. About 110 hostages are still being held in Gaza, and Israeli authorities have said about one-third of them are believed to be dead.
Israel’s counteroffensive aimed at eliminating Hamas has killed more than 39,100 people, according to the Gaza health ministry. The ministry’s count does not differentiate between militants and civilians.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz expressed condolences to the families of the recovered hostages and said bringing back the remaining hostages, whether alive or dead, is an obligation.
Months of negotiations brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar have not been able to secure an agreement on a cease-fire proposal that would include the release of hostages from Gaza as well as Israel freeing Palestinian prisoners and a surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to discuss the negotiations Thursday with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House. Ahead of the meeting, a U.S. official said negotiations were focused on the implementation of the cease-fire plan and that there are issues to resolve with both Israel and Hamas in order to achieve a deal.
The Israeli military also reported Thursday conducting operations in the central and southern Gaza Strip and said its forces had destroyed about 50 Hamas infrastructure targets in recent days in Khan Younis.
Israeli airstrikes also hit southern Lebanon, targeting buildings used by the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group, the Israel Defense Forces said.
Some information for this report was provided by from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
