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Agence France-Presse

Israeli forces retrieved the remains of five Israelis, killed during Hamas’ October 7 attack on southern Israel, whose bodies had been taken to the Gaza Strip, the military said Thursday.
It said the bodies of Maya Goren, 56, as well as soldiers Tomer Ahimas and Kiril Brodski, along with Ravid Aryeh Katz and Oren Goldin – military reservists – had been returned to Israel following a rescue operation.
The five had previously been announced dead, and the military and an Israeli campaign group, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, said that they all had been killed by Palestinian militants on the day of the attack.
The military said the soldiers were killed in combat while fighting the militants on October 7.

The attack by Hamas militants on that day resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom remain in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.
The bodies were recovered on Wednesday during an operation in Khan Younis, the main city in the south of the Gaza Strip, the military said, more than nine months into the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas.
The military did not provide details but said the intelligence gathered prior to the rescue mission included information provided by arrested militants.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, in a statement praising the mission, said the military “will continue fighting Hamas until its defeat”.
“We are committed to returning the hostages home.”
The recovery of the bodies came days after the military launched a new assault on Khan Younis. Israel said it was pulling troops from the city in April, after months of fierce fighting in the area.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum insisted that the Israeli government agree to a ceasefire deal that could help return the remaining captives.

It said the recovery of the five bodies “is a crucial and decisive military action that provides their families with important closure and eternal rest for the murdered”.
In a statement on Thursday, the group added: “It is Israel’s duty to return all the murdered for honourable burial and all living hostages for rehabilitation”.
The group separately demanded an urgent meeting with Israel’s team for negotiating a ceasefire and hostage-release deal, saying a “crisis of trust” had emerged.
“It has now become apparent that the information provided to the hostages’ families did not accurately reflect the situation’s reality,” the forum said in the latest statement.
“This foot-dragging is a deliberate sabotage of the chance to bring our loved ones back. It effectively undermines the negotiations and indicates a serious moral failure.”
Their accusation came while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – whose critics have accused him of prolonging the war – is in Washington for talks Thursday with US President Joe Biden.
A senior US administration official said on Wednesday that negotiations on a Gaza deal were in the last stretch and that Biden would try to close some “final gaps” with Netanyahu.
Thursday’s military announcement came after two Israeli communities, Nir Oz and Nir Yitzhak, said in separate statements late on Wednesday that the army had recovered the bodies of Goren and Goldin.
“Last night, we were informed that in a military rescue operation, the body of the late Maya Goren was recovered,” the Nir Oz kibbutz community said, adding that her family had been informed.
Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak said the army had returned Goldin’s body.
“This evening, we were informed about the rescue operation for the late Oren Goldin, a member of the kibbutz emergency team, who fell on October 7” during the attack by Hamas militants, Nir Yitzhak said.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 39,100 Palestinians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.


Gaza war: US charges Hamas leaders over October 7 attack on Israel

US says ‘time to finalise’ Gaza deal after Israeli hostage deaths

Gaza war: UK sparks diplomatic row with Israel by halting some arms exports

Israel mourns hostages killed in Gaza as ceasefire deal remains out of reach

Israel-Gaza war

Israeli army recovers bodies of 5 hostages from Gaza

Smoke rises following Israeli bombardments in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, on Monday. Photo: AP

Ravid Katz, Kiril Brodski, Tomer Ahimas, Oren Goldin and Maya Goren. Photo: Hostages Families Forum Headquarters via AFP

Relatives and friends of hostages held in the Gaza Strip march during a rally calling for their release in Tel Aviv, Israel. Photo: AP

Hostages forum says 2 captives died while held by Hamas in Gaza: ‘should’ve returned alive’

A woman holds a photo of Israeli hostage Yagev Buchshtab during a protest calling for a deal and the release of the hostages held in Gaza on April 9. Photo: Reuters

Yagev Buchshtab, an Israeli hostage who was kidnapped in the deadly October 7 attack by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, has died. Photo: Bring Them Home Now/Handout via Reuters

Alex Dancyg, an Israeli hostage who was kidnapped in the deadly October 7 attack by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has died. Photo: Bring Them Home Now/Handout via Reuters

70 killed as Israeli tanks roll into Khan Younis after evacuation order

A Palestinian woman gestures as others flee the eastern part of Khan Younis after they were ordered by the Israeli army to evacuate their neighbourhoods on Monday. Photo: Reuters

Displaced Palestinians pass destroyed buildings as they leave Khan Younis, southern Gaza on Monday. Photo: Bloomberg

Palestinians flee the eastern part of Khan Younis, some Gazans say they have been evacuated at least four times. Photo: Reuters

Fighting continues in southern Gaza as Israeli strikes hit central areas

An explosion following an Israeli air strike on a residential building in Nuseirat, central Gaza at the weekend. Photo: Reuters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to Israeli soldiers during a visit to the southern city of Rafah in Gaza. Photo: Avi Ohayon / GPO / dpa -

Bodies trapped in Gaza City under Israeli assault as mediators push for truce

A destroyed Israeli military vehicle in a neighbourhood east of Gaza City. Photo: AFP

Destroyed buildings and rubble after the Israeli military withdrew from a neighbourhood east of Gaza City. Photo: AFP

An Israeli tank in the southern Gaza Strip last Wednesday. Photo: AP

News

World

Middle East

The bodies of a 56-year-old woman and four military reservists were brought back from the Khan Younis area


Among them is a 56-year-old woman who lived in an Israeli kibbutz. The remaining four bodies are soldiers who were also killed during the October 7 attack.


Israel

War and conflict