In Gaza, Israeli military finds bodies of 3 hostages who were killed at a music festival
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said Friday that its troops in Gaza have found the bodies of three Israeli hostages taken by Hamas during its Oct. 7 attack, including German Israeli Shani Louk.
A photo of 22-year-old Louk’s twisted body in the back of a pickup truck ricocheted around the world and brought to light the scale of the militants’ attack on communities in southern Israel. The military identified the other two bodies as those of a 28-year-old woman, Amit Buskila, and a 56-year-old man, Itzhak Gelerenter.
All three were killed by Hamas while fleeing the Nova music festival, an outdoor dance party near the Gaza border, where militants killed hundreds of people, military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said at a news conference.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the deaths “heartbreaking,” saying, “We will return all of our hostages, both the living and the dead.”
The military said the bodies were found overnight, without elaborating, and did not give 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.
Weeks after Hamas militants paraded her nearly naked body, young Israeli festival-goer Shani Louk is confirmed dead. Many families still await news of their loved ones.
A forensic investigator in Tel Aviv works to reassemble remains of victims of Hamas militants, trying to understand the causes of death and the underlying cruelty.
Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and abducted about 250 others in the Oct. 7 attack. About half of those hostages have since been freed, most in swaps for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel during a weeklong cease-fire in November.
Israel says about 100 hostages are still captive in Gaza, along with the bodies of some 30 more. Israel’s war on Hamas, with constant bombardment and ground attacks, has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health officials. The Health Ministry figures don’t differentiate between combatants and civilians, but officials say many victims have been women and children.
Israel-Hamas war: In Qatar’s capital, a compound housing Palestinian medical evacuees from Gaza is a living catalog of what war does to the human body.
In Washington on Friday, White House national security spokesman John F. Kirby said the U.S. has no further information about five American hostages it believes are still being held in Gaza.
“Our hearts go out to the families who were having to deal with this terrible news,” he said of the recovery of the three bodies.
The Biden administration sought to downplay the impact the recovery could have on efforts, with Egypt and Qatar, to forge deal exchanging hostages for a cease-fire.
President Biden is dispatching his national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, to Saudi Arabia and Israel this weekend to discuss the seven-month war, including the hostage situation and U.S. concerns about Israel’s plans to carry out a widescale operation in southern Gaza. Sullivan is scheduled to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel, Kirby said.
Netanyahu has vowed to eliminate Hamas and bring all the hostages back, but he’s made little progress. He faces pressure to resign, and the U.S. has threatened to scale back its support over the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Israelis are divided into two main camps: those who want the government to put the war on hold and free the hostages, and others who think the hostages are an unfortunate price to pay for eradicating Hamas. On-and-off negotiations mediated by Qatar, the United States and Egypt have yielded little.
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