Israel announced that it recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in Gaza, where they were killed shortly before troops could rescue them.
“According to our initial estimation, they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists a short time before we reached them,” military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.
The victims, Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Ori Danino, were returned to Israel.
The incident has sparked protests and planned strikes in Israel over the failure to save the hostages. This comes amid ongoing violence in the West Bank and a polio vaccination campaign in Gaza.
Earlier last week, Israeli forces targeted and killed a local Hamas commander, Wassem Hazem, in Jenin during an ongoing military operation in the West Bank.
Hazem, identified as the head of Hamas in Jenin, was reportedly involved in various attacks.
Two other Hamas members were also killed when they attempted to escape the vehicle they were in, with one killed by a drone strike.
Weapons, explosives, and cash were found in the vehicle. Hamas confirmed the deaths of the three men, who were members of its Al-Qassam Brigades.
