The Israeli army announced on Friday that it had found the bodies of three hostages taken to the Gaza Strip after they were killed during an attack by Hamas militants on October 7 last year.
The bodies of Hanan Yablonka, Michel Nisenbaum and Orion Hernandez Radoux were found overnight in a joint military-intelligence operation in Jabalia in northern Gaza, where intense fighting has been going on for the past few days, the statement said.
Army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Israel was determined to return the remaining hostages still being held in Gaza.
“We will not stop fighting for their freedom,” he said in a televised statement, announcing the recovery of the three bodies.
“Any self-respecting country would do the same,” he reasoned.
Yablonka (42) and Hernandez Radoux (30) were killed at the Nova music festival near Gaza, where Hernandez Radoux’s girlfriend Shani Louk was also killed, the army said.
Her body was found along with two other victims last week.
Nisenbaum (65) was killed on the way to his granddaughter, whom he was supposed to be looking after.
Hernandez Radoux had French citizenship. President Emmanuel Macron announced on X that he received the news of his death with sadness.
“I think of his family and those close to him. We are on their side. “France remains more than ever committed to the release of all hostages,” Macron wrote.
The bodies were identified by medical officials from Israel’s National Forensic Institute and Israeli police, the army said.
The Family Forum, a group representing families of hostages, called on the government to step up efforts to reach an agreement on the return of the remaining hostages still being held in Gaza.
“The discovery of their bodies is a quiet but firm reminder that the State of Israel is obligated to immediately send negotiating teams with a clear demand to reach an agreement that will quickly return all hostages home. They live for rehabilitation, and the deceased for burial,” reads the Forum’s press release.
Negotiations on a ceasefire and a hostage deal brokered by Qatar and Egypt are at a standstill. Israeli authorities say they are willing to negotiate only a temporary pause in the fighting, while Hamas sources say they will release the hostages only as part of a deal that would end the war with an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Gunmen led by Hamas kidnapped around 250 Israeli and foreign hostages and killed 1,200 people during an attack on an area near the Gaza Strip on October 7 last year, according to Israeli figures.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared their return one of Israel’s main war goals.
According to the agreement from November, about half of the hostages were returned, and about 130 hostages are still there. Many of those still in Gaza are believed to be dead.
In response to the October 7 attack, Israel launched a relentless campaign in Gaza that killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health authorities, and destroyed much of the densely populated enclave, Hina writes.
