The bodies of three more hostages who were killed in Hamas attacks on October 7 have been recovered in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said on Friday, as the head of the CIA headed to Europe in a bid to revive peace talks. ceasefire and while the high-ranking United States Court of Nations prepared to decide whether Israel should suspend its operations in the Palestinian enclave.
Hanan Yablonka, Michel Nisenbaum and Orion Hernandez were killed on October 7 at the Mefalsim crossing and their bodies were taken to Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on Friday morning, citing intelligence information.
His remains were recovered from the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza in a joint overnight operation between the IDF and the Israel Security Agency that saw “intense fighting” carried out in the area, the military said.
This comes as Israeli forces continue to expand operations inside the enclave, with the IDF fighting Hamas in parts of northern and central Gaza, which previously said troops had freed militant fighters.
Israeli troops have also penetrated deeper into Rafah, the city in southern Gaza where more than 1 million people have sought refuge during the war, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee and deepening a humanitarian crisis there, while putting test the red lines declared by the Biden administration.
CIA Director William Burns will hold meetings in Europe in the coming days with the head of the Israeli spy agency Mossad and the prime minister of Qatar, hoping to revive negotiations for a truce agreement that would also guarantee the release of captives. remaining, the Israeli official said. he said.
The official also said that the Israeli government assesses that it is likely that the International Court of Justice will not order a complete ceasefire across the Strip when it rules on Friday, but may order an end to military operations in Rafah. The Israeli government will study the decision before making decisions, the official said, but will not accept a court order to end the war against Hamas.
South Africa last week asked the court to demand a halt to the attack on Rafah as part of the country’s ongoing case accusing Israel of genocidal acts in the war, amid growing international outrage that has left Israel increasingly diplomatically isolated.
Israel and the US have rejected the genocide charge, with Biden doing so again this week after the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor requested arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders.
The ICC – based in The Hague, Netherlands – can charge people with war crimes and other related charges. It is separate from the ICJ, which considers cases between States and has no real power to enforce its decisions.
More than 35,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian enclave’s Ministry of Health, in the months since Israel launched its offensive following the Hamas attacks on October 7, which marked a major escalation in a decades-old conflict.
Around 1,200 people were killed on October 7, and another 250 were taken hostage in Gaza, according to Israeli officials. Around 125 people remain held captive in Gaza, with at least a third of them believed to be dead.
In a video briefing on Friday, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Israeli forces “would not stop fighting” to see the hostages returned. “Every decent country in the world would do the same,” he said.
Hernandez, 30, was the partner of Shani Louk, 23, whose body was also recovered in Gaza in an operation earlier this month, said the Forum for Hostages and Missing Families, which represents the families of hostages detained in Gaza. Hernandez was a French-Mexican citizen who resided in Mexico and leaves behind a young daughter, the forum said.
French President Emmanuel Macron offered his condolences to Hernandez’s family in a statement on X on Friday, saying: “France remains more than ever committed to the release of all hostages.”
Nisenbaum was described as a 59-year-old Brazilian-Israeli citizen and father of Sderot’s two daughters. He was taken hostage while trying to rescue his 4-year-old granddaughter who was with her father in the Re’im area, the forum said.
Yablonka, a 42-year-old father of two from Tel Aviv, was taken hostage at the Nova music festival, which he attended with friends.
It was not immediately clear when Israeli authorities became aware that the trio had been killed on October 7.
Reuven Yablonka, Hanan Yablonka’s father, said on Friday that he first found out about his son’s death on social media, before being informed by the IDF.
He said he received more than 300 messages, with his daughter later saying that “she didn’t want to say anything, but people were sending messages on Telegram that Hanan was killed.”
“When the IDF called at 8:30 a.m. to ask if they could come, we realized it was all true,” he said in an interview with Israeli broadcaster Channel 12. NBC News was unable to immediately contact the families of the three men. .
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he and his wife were mourning the deaths of the three men as he praised Israeli forces for acting “with great courage in the heart of enemy territory in order to return them to their families and to the tomb of Israel.” .”
“We have a national and moral duty to do everything we can to return our abductees – their lives and their spaces – and that is what we are doing,” he said.
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