Israeli army says bodies of three hostages recovered from Gaza, including of Shani Louk, killed at music festival

Chief military spokesman Daniel Hagari announced on Friday that Israeli soldiers have recovered the bodies of three hostages from the Gaza Strip on Thursday night.

Hagari named the three as Yitzhak Gelernter, Amit Buskila, and Shani Louk. He claimed that their bodies “were taken into Gaza and murdered by Hamas while escaping the Nova music festival on October 7.” He omitted to mention the location of the bodies.

German-Israeli tattoo artist Louk, 23, was certified dead by the Israeli government in late October. At the time, a video went viral on social media featuring her partially nude body being dragged through Gaza on the back of a pickup truck.

But the family of 57-year-old Gelernter was “in total darkness” about his fate until Friday, his daughter, Yarden Pivko, told Channel 12 News.

“We held on to hope and had a lot of faith that the end would be different,” she said.

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In a statement on Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed gratitude for the military operation and reaffirmed his commitment to freeing all hostages, “the living and the deceased alike”.

The armed wing of Hamas, the organization in charge of Gaza, responded to the military’s declaration by stating that it was “skeptical” of Israel’s assertions and that a truce was the only means by which the remaining hostages might return safely.

“The resistance believes that the enemy will not get its prisoners except as lifeless corpses or through an honorable exchange deal for our people,” it said.

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On October 7, Hamas orchestrated an unexpected assault on southern Israeli communities and bases, resulting in around 250 hostages and 1,200 fatalities, as per Israeli estimates. There are still 129 prisoners held captive in Gaza.

Since then, Israel has attacked the blockaded Palestinian enclave by air, land, and sea, killing over 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.

The bombing has destroyed the coastal enclave, uprooted the majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants, and created a serious humanitarian crisis.

In exchange for the 240 Palestinians Israel was holding, 110 Israeli and international prisoners were freed during the brief ceasefire that ended at the end of November.