Israel – Israel retrieved the bodies of six hostages from the Khan Younis area in the southern Gaza Strip overnight, the Israeli military and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in statements on Tuesday.
They added that the families of Yagiev Buchchav, Alexander Denzig, Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popul and Haim Perry had been informed that their bodies had been recovered.
The Forum of Families of Hostages and Missing Persons, an organization representing most of the families of the hostages, welcomed the news but renewed its call for the government to reach an agreement with the Palestinian factions movement to free the remaining hostages.
“The immediate return of the remaining 109 hostages can only be achieved through a negotiated agreement,” he said. “The Israeli government, with the help of mediators, must do everything in its power to complete the agreement currently on the table.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is visiting the Middle East this week in an attempt to reach an agreement between Israel and the factions movement on a ceasefire and the release of hostages.
Hamas launched an attack on Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli statistics.
Palestinian health authorities said more than 40,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed in Israel’s military campaign on Gaza in response to a Hamas attack that reduced much of the territory to rubble.
Reuters
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2024-08-20 20:37:48
