Israel identifies hostages who died during detention in Gaza

The Israeli military said on Friday that its forces had identified the body of one of the hostages taken by Hamas on October 7 and confirmed the killing of four others, as fighting resumed in the Gaza Strip after a long-lasting truce. a week.

The army said in a statement that Israeli forces recently found the body of Ofer Tzarvati, one of the people detained from the Nova music festival in Re’im, outside Gaza, and forensic officers identified it as his body at the beginning of this week.

Additionally, Admiral Daniel Hagari, the IDF’s chief spokesman, said that the families of hostages Eliyahu Margalit, Mia Gegorin, Ronen Engel and Ari Zalmanovich were informed of their killing based on “reliable intelligence information.”

A group representing hostage families also said a Nova Festival sound engineer named Jay Illouz, who had been taken hostage, was confirmed dead in custody.

Israeli authorities report that a total of around 240 people were taken hostage during the October 7 attack and that around 1,200 Israelis and foreigners were killed.

Authorities said that during the seven-day truce, which ended Friday morning, 110 hostages, including 86 Israelis and 24 foreigners, were released in exchange for Palestinian detainees, while Israeli forces recovered the bodies of two hostages.

Hamas reported this week that 10-month-old Kfir Bibas, the youngest of the hostages, his four-year-old brother Ariel and mother Shira Bibas were all killed in an Israeli shelling, but the Israeli military said this information had not been obtained. it has yet to be proven true.

Israel responded to the Oct. 7 attack with its heaviest ever bombing of the Gaza Strip and a ground invasion of the Strip, killing more than 15,000 people, about 40 percent of whom were under 18, according to Gaza authorities.

Israeli leaders pledged to continue the operation to return all hostages to Israel and eliminate Hamas.