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25-05-2024
JERUSALEM/ GAZA CITY: The bodies of three more Israeli hostages have been recovered from Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have said.
They are those of Hanan Yablonka, Michel Nisenbaum and Orion Hernandez, it said in a statement.
The IDF said the men’s bodies were recovered from the northern town of Jabalia overnight in a joint operation with Israel’s domestic intelligence agency.
It comes one week after three other hostages’ bodies were retrieved from Gaza.
The dead hostages were among 252 people who were taken captive when Hamas gunmen attacked Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people.
There are about 130 still held in Gaza, Israel says.
Hanan Yablonka, 42, and Orion Hernandez, 32, were killed after fleeing from the site of the Nova music festival which was ambushed by the gunmen. More than 360 mainly young people were killed at the festival.
Michel Nisenbaum, 59, was last heard of on his way to get his four-year-old granddaughter who was with her father at an army base on the Gaza border.
Orion Hernandez was the boyfriend of Shani Louk, whose body was among the three recovered last week.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on X; “we have a national and moral duty to do everything we can to return our hostages, the living and the deceased and that is what we are doing.”
Israel relaunched an offensive on Jabalia two weeks ago, months after pulling out, saying Hamas forces had regrouped there.
The attack on 7 October triggered an Israeli military campaign throughout the Gaza Strip with the declared aim of destroying the group and freeing the hostages.
At least 35,800 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Furthermore, a total of 121 hostages remain unaccounted for after being kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October last year at least 37 of them are presumed dead.
According to Israel, 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken during the attacks.
Israel gives an official figure of 125 hostages being held in Gaza because it includes four people taken hostage in 2014 and 2015. Two of these are believed to have died.
These are the stories of those hostages who are still being held, which either have been confirmed by media or credibly reported.
This list is regularly updated and names may change, as some people feared kidnapped are confirmed to have been killed or released.
Yagev Kirsht, 34, was taken from his home in Kibbutz Nirim, alongside his wife, Rimon Buchstab Kirsht. She has now been released.
Alexander Trupanov, was taken hostage with his mother Lena Trupanov, 50, his partner Sapir Cohen, 29, and his grandmother Irina Tati, 73. All were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz as they spent the Sabbath together, according to a statement by Canada’s Raoul Wallenburg Center for Human Rights. Irina and Lena were released on Wednesday 29 November and Sapir was freed the next day.
Ariel Cunio, his girlfriend Arbel Yahud and her brother Dolev are also thought to have been abducted in the same attack on Nir Oz. Eitan Cunio, Ariel’s brother who escaped Hamas, told the Jewish Chronicle that his last message from Ariel said: “We are in a horror movie.”
David Cunio, 33, another of Ariel’s brothers, was also kidnapped from Nir Oz, family say. David’s wife Sharon Aloni Cunio and their three-year-old twin daughters Ema and Yuly were released on 27 November. Sharon’s sister Daniele Aloni, and her six-year-old daughter Emilia were both released on 24 November. (Int’l News Desk)
