Israel army says bodies of three hostages recovered in Gaza
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The bodies of (from left) hostages Shani Louk, Itzhak Gelerenter and Amit Buskila were recovered from Gaza by Israeli forces.
PHOTO: ISRAEL/X
Follow topic:
JERUSALEM – The Israeli army said on May 17 that troops had recovered the bodies of three hostages in the war-torn Gaza Strip who had been killed by their captors on Oct 7.
“Last night, the Israel Defence Forces (army) rescued the bodies of our hostages Shani Louk, Amit Buskila and Itzhak Gelerenter,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a televised address.
The Israeli citizens “were taken hostage during the Hamas massacre on Oct 7 and murdered” during the bloody attack on the Nova music festival, he added.
Thousands of young people had gathered on Oct 6 and 7 to dance to electronic music at the festival, which was held near the Re’im kibbutz, close to the Gaza border.
Fighters from the Palestinian militant group Hamas crossed over and killed more than 360 people at the festival, Israeli officials have said.
“This terrible loss is heartbreaking... We will return all of our hostages, the living and the deceased alike,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement after the announcement.
The Nova festival victims accounted for nearly a third of the estimated 1,170 people killed in the Oct 7 attack, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Out of the 252 people taken hostage that day, 125 are still being held inside the Gaza Strip, including 37 the army says are dead.
Israel has launched a retaliatory offensive against Hamas that has killed at least 35,303 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run territory’s Health Ministry.
The Hostages Families Forum said the recovery of the bodies was a “painful and stark reminder that we must swiftly bring back all our brothers and sisters from their cruel captivity”.
Israeli-German dual national Louk, 22, was identified in online videos showing a woman lying face down in the back of a pick-up truck filled with armed men, before being announced as having died later in October.
The last sign of life of another hostage, Ms Buskila, who was also captured while partying at the festival, was a call to her uncle, named as Shimon, who heard his niece beg her kidnappers not to take her away. AFP
