With Secretary of State Antony Blinken waiting for Hamas to accept the ceasefire deal, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Monday night recovered the bodies of six more Israeli hostages murdered by the Palestinian terrorists since October 7.
The bodies were discovered in Khan Yunis, an area until recently designated by Israel as a civilian safe zone, which Hamas has used to hide top terrorists and launch rockets at Israeli cities. Last week, the IDF evacuated parts of Khan Yunis in a bid to eliminate Hamas jihadists and destroy terrorist infrastructure.
In an overnight operation, the “bodies of the hostages Yagev Buchshtab, Alexander Dancyg, Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell, and Haim Perry were rescued from the Khan Yunis area in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said in a press statement Tuesday morning.
The recovery mission was carried out with the support of the intelligence service Israel Security Agency (ISA), also known as Shin Bet. “The IDF and ISA rescued the bodies of the hostages Yagev Buchshtab, Alexander Dancyg, Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell, and Haim Perry from the Khan Yunis area in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF disclosed.
“Following an identification procedure carried out by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine and the Israel Police, the IDF Manpower Directorate’s Hostage team, which is responsible for accompanying the families of the hostages, notified their families and communities today,” the IDF said.
The recovery of the bodies lowers the number of hostages still believed to be alive in Hamas captivity to 105. “Munder, Dancyg, Peri and Metzger were all abducted by Hamas from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, while Buchshtav and Popplewell were taken hostage from Kibbutz Nirim,” the Times of Israel reported. “It is now believed that 105 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.”
The newspaper Israel Hayom reported the recovery of the hostages’ bodies:
The IDF successfully retrieved the remains of six hostages from a tunnel in Gaza during a covert night operation on Monday night. The mission, based on intelligence from Israel’s security agencies, marks a significant but heartbreaking milestone in the efforts to recover those taken captive.The recovery mission, orchestrated using intelligence from the Shin Bet and Military Intelligence Directorate, led to the discovery of the remains inside a tunnel network in the Hamad neighborhood of central Khan Younis. While the approach to the tunnel involved firefights with nearby fighters, the forces encountered no resistance within the tunnel itself. Following the retrieval, the IDF completed the identification process before delivering the devastating news to the families of the deceased hostages.The operation remains active, with forces continuing to scour the tunnel for any additional remains or intelligence that could prove valuable to the IDF. Military officials are hailing this as a significant achievement for the 98th Division, which is currently deployed in Gaza. The complex mission involved a coordinated effort from the 98th Division, 35th Brigade, engineering units, the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, the Shin Bet, and Unit 504, the human intelligence arm of the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate.On Tuesday morning, Kibbutz Nirim confirmed that the bodies of Yagev Buchshtab and Nadav Popplewell had been recovered from a tunnel in Khan Yunis. Both were declared dead by the IDF in July, while their bodies were still in captivity. Kibbutz Nir Oz announced another hostage’s body, Yoram Metzger, as having been returned as well, as well as Avraham Munder, whose death was not previously known.
With the hopes of getting back the remaining hostages alive dwindling by the day, the Biden administration reportedly succeeded in getting Israel to accept its latest ceasefire deal.
Blinken, currently on a visit to Israel, announced that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has agreed to the ceasefire proposal floated jointly by the Biden administration, Egypt and Qatar — the leading backer of Hamas in the Arab world.
The New York Times reports:
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on Monday that Israel had accepted a Biden administration proposal to bridge some remaining differences with Hamas on a cease-fire deal, as he pushed what he called “probably the best, maybe the last, opportunity” to secure a truce and free the remaining hostages in Gaza.Mr. Blinken made the declaration after a nearly three-hour meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Jerusalem. “In a very constructive meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu today, he confirmed to me that Israel accepts the bridging proposal — that he supports it,” Mr. Blinken told reporters. “It’s now incumbent on Hamas to do the same.”The statement put new pressure on Hamas, whose officials have called the proposal fundamentally slanted toward Israel, although the details have not been publicized.
The IDF on Monday nights struck Hezbollah weapons depot and missile sites deep inside Lebanon after the Iran-backed terrorist group carried out a deadly drone attack in northern Israel.
“Israel Air Force fighter jets struck several Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley,” the Jerusalem Post reported. “Secondary explosions were seen, indicating the presence of large quantities of weaponry in the facilities.”
The Israeli Air Force (IAF) also hit other nearby terrorist targets in the Hezbollah-controlled area. “At least three Israeli airstrikes hit towns in the Lebanon’s northeastern Baalbek District, Lebanese state media reported,” the Times of Israel reported Monday night. “Videos from the scene showed a large fire and multiple explosions following the initial strike.”
Israeli airstrikes came after an IDF soldier was killed and another injured in a Hezbollah drone strike in the north. “The IDF said on Monday that Chief Warrant Officer Mahmood Amaria, aged 45, from Ibtin was killed in a Hezbollah drone strike on the Western Galilee. Another person suffered serious injuries in the attack,” the Israeli news website YNET reported. “Hezbollah launched an attack in the early morning hours. At least at least five drones infiltrated across the Lebanon border, the military said, three were intercepted but two exploded inside Israel, one near Kibbutz Gesher Haziv and on in Ya’ara, killing Amaria.”
Reuters reported the details of the Israeli strike citing IDF sources:
An Israeli strike on Monday evening targeted a Hezbollah arms depot in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, the Israeli military said. (…)The Israeli military said its air force struck a number of Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in the area of Beqaa in Lebanon.”Following the strikes, secondary explosions were identified, indicating the presence of large amounts of weapons in the facilities struck,” the military said in a statement.It said earlier strikes in Deir Qanoun and Tayibe south of Lebanon targeted a senior militant in Hezbollah’s Rocket and Missile Unit and a cell operating from a Hezbollah military structure.
Overnight Monday, Hezbollah continued launching attack drone and rockets towards Israel. “Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in the areas of the Upper Galilee and the Golan Heights, approximately 55 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanese territory,”the IDF said in a press release Tuesday morning. “Some of the projectiles were intercepted, and the rest fell in open areas. No injuries were reported.”
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY