JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says it found the bodies of three Israeli hostages in Gaza, including German-Israeli Shani Louk, who were killed by Hamas on Oct. 7 at an outdoor music festival near the border.
A photo of Shani’s twisted body in the back of a pickup truck ricocheted around the world, bringing to light the scale of the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.
The other two bodies were identified as a 28-year-old woman, Amit Buskila, and a 56-year-old man, Itzhak Gelerenter, according to military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari. He did not give immediate details on where their bodies were found.
Israel has been operating in the Gaza Strip’s southern city of Rafah, where it says it has intelligence that hostages are being held.
Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and abducted around 250 others in the Oct. 7 attack. Around half of those hostages have since been freed, most in swaps for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel during a weeklong cease-fire in November.
Israel says around 100 hostages are still captive in Gaza, along with the bodies of around 30 more. Israel’s war in Gaza since the attack has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.
Netanyahu has vowed to both eliminate Hamas and bring all the hostages back, but he’s made little progress. He faces pressure to resign, and the U.S. has threatened to scale back its support over the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Israelis are divided into two main camps: those who want the government to put the war on hold and free the hostages, and others who think the hostages are an unfortunate price to pay for eradicating Hamas. On-and-off negotiations mediated by Qatar, the United States and Egypt have yielded little.
