IDF says it retrieved bodies of 3 hostages from northern Gaza Strip

The Israeli army claimed on Friday to have recovered the bodies of three hostages from the Jabaliya area in the northern Gaza Strip, Anadolu has reported. The occupation army named the hostages as Hanan Yablonka, Michel Nissenbaum and Orion Hernandez. Their bodies were recovered last night in a joint operation by the so-called Israel Defence Forces and Shin Bet security service.

The army alleged that the hostages were killed on 7 October during the cross-border incursion by the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement. There was no comment from Hamas on the Israeli claims.

Last week, the Israeli army announced that it had retrieved the bodies of four Israelis held in Gaza since 7 October. The occupation state claims that nearly 1,200 people were killed during the Hamas incursion on that day, although Israeli media reports have said that many were killed by IDF tanks and helicopter gunships.

The subsequent and ongoing brutal Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip since then has killed at least 36,000 Palestinians, mainly children and women, and wounded 80,000 others.

More than seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza are in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered it to ensure that its forces do not commit acts of genocide, and to take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza. According to South Africa, which took the occupation state to the ICJ, Israel is ignoring the court order.

READ: ICJ to rule on request to halt Israel’s Rafah offensive