Bodies of three hostages recovered from Gaza: Israel

They have been identified as Yonatan Samerano, Shay Levinson, and Ofra Keidar.

They were held in Hamas captivity since October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Sharing the update on recovering the bodies of the three hostages, IDF wrote on X: "The bodies of SSGT Shay Levinson, Yonatan Samerano and Ofra Keidar, who were held hostage for 625 days in Gaza, have been recovered in a joint IDF and ISA military operation."

"May their memories be a blessing," IDF said.

The bodies of three slain hostages, Ofra Keidar, Jonathan Samerano, and Staff Sgt. Shay Levinson, were recovered in a joint military and Shin Bet operation from the Gaza Strip overnight, IDF said as quoted by The Times of Israel.

The operation to recover the bodies was carried out by the Gaza Division, and was “enabled by precise intelligence” obtained by the military’s Hostages Headquarters unit, the Military Intelligence Directorate, and the Shin Bet, the IDF says.

With the recovery of the three bodies, a total of 50 hostages are currently present in Gaza.

The Hamas had abducted 251 hostages during their October 7 attack.

The group also killed 1200 people during their attack on southern Israel.

Israel launched a campaign against Hamas following the October 7 incident.

Death And Suffering In Gaza

Death and suffering in Gaza are ever-present and the enclave's people now have little choice but to risk their lives to fetch aid supplies, UN agencies said on Friday.

“I met a little boy who was wounded by a tank shell at one of these sites on the final day of me leaving Gaza - I learnt that this little boy had since died of those injuries,” said UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson James Elder. “That speaks to both what is happening at these sites and what is not happening when it comes to medical evacuations.”

A recent online video featuring a dying 13-year-old Abed al-Rahman who Mr. Elder met while on mission in Gaza has been seen thousands of times since it was published on 6 June. In the clip, Abed explains that he has been asking for pain relief for his shrapnel wounds, but none is available.

Speaking to journalists from Amman, Mr. Elder explained that partly destroyed hospitals including Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis continue to treat wounded children, despite a shortage of medicine and medical supplies.

“Humanitarian aid is so much more than food in a box; it's oxygen kits, it's ventilators, it's hygiene packs; it's medicines, it's incubators,” he explained. “It's all those things the United Nations was doing just a couple of months ago.”

Elder added that parents whose children need oxygen have been leaving hospital “because of the fear that Nasser may come under attack again. As the doctors told me, if you have a child who needs oxygen and they leave without the oxygen, they will, over a matter of time, die in a tent.”

Desperation, Starvation

The dire shortage of the most basic life-sustaining aid linked to Israeli restrictions continues to create desperation and starvation across Gaza.

“I spoke to a grandmother in tears saying, how am I possibly to get to these sites?” Mr. Elder explained. “I've met young men who've been seven times and never returned with anything. So, there's a complete lack of equity. There's a complete lack of sites. You cannot distribute aid in a militarised zone, in a combat zone, by one party to the conflict.”

Those most susceptible to the lack of fresh drinking water, food and fuel are the weakest Gazans: the young, pregnant women, the elderly and amputees,  Elder said.

It would be impossible for them to walk the long distances required to fetch scant supplies from controversial non-UN aid hubs.