Israeli military recovers bodies of six more hostages

Soldiers and police officers recovered the bodies in an overnight raid on the city of Khan Younis, Israel Defense Forces said in a Tuesday statement. Authorities identified the bodies of the hostages at Israel’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine before notifying their families, according to the IDF. The Israeli military grieves with the hostages' families, according to as translation of its statement.

Who were the hostages? Israel’s government identified the deceased hostages as:

• Yagav Buchshtab, age 34

• Alexander Dancyg, age 76

• Avraham Munder, age 79

• Yoram Metzger, age 80

• Nadav Poplewell, age 51

• Haim Perry, age 79

The Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas abducted the hostages from Israel during its Oct. 7 raid. Hamas militants killed roughly 1,200 people in Israel that day. The six hostages spent more than ten months in Gaza, a group of Israeli hostages’ families called Bring Them Home Now said. The organization said in a later statement that the Israeli government could have saved all six hostages.

How many hostages are still in Gaza? Bring Them Home Now on Tuesday said 109 hostages remain in Gaza. Israeli government officials have declared about a third of the hostages to be dead. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office insisted last week that Hamas must return all living hostages for Israel to pause military operations in Gaza. In another statement on Tuesday, Netanyahu promised Israel would bring back all living and all deceased hostages. He expressed his condolences to the hostages’ families.

Dig deeper: Listen to Mary Muncy’s report on The World and Everything in It podcast about how hostages in Gaza face an uncertain future as violence in Gaza has escalated.