Bodies of 5 hostages were found in tunnel in Gaza’s Israeli-designated humanitarian zone
IDF had adjusted zone in Khan Younis, ordering civilians to evacuate area where tunnel found; soldier dies, 2 others badly hurt in Gaza, apparently after inhaling toxic fumes
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The bodies of five Israelis killed and taken hostage by terrorists on October 7, and brought back to Israel in a special operation on Wednesday, were recovered from a tunnel located in the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in the southern Gaza Strip, the military said Thursday.
The Israel Defense Forces adjusted the zone ahead of the operation in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis and ordered Palestinian civilians in part of it, where the tunnel was located, to temporarily evacuate.
In the operation on Wednesday, the bodies of Ravid Katz, 51, Oren Goldin, 33, Maya Goren, 56, Sgt. Kiril Brodski, 19, and Staff Sgt. Tomer Yaakov Ahimas, 20, were recovered by IDF special forces and members of the Shin Bet security agency.
All five were previously declared dead by the IDF. They were all killed on October 7 and their bodies were dragged into Gaza by Hamas-led terrorists.
The IDF said that in recent weeks it obtained intelligence, including from Shin Bet interrogations of detained terrorists in Gaza, on the location of the tunnel where Hamas was holding the bodies of the hostages.
The tunnel was 200 meters long and about 20 meters deep and featured several rooms, according to the military. It took combat engineers several hours to dig down to reach the tunnel.
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari in a press conference said the “complex” operation to recover the bodies took place in “the heart of Khan Younis,” where the military had operated and withdrawn from earlier this year.
“The troops raided the area and reached an underground site based on accurate intelligence, from several sources… where they found the five hostages hidden behind a wall in the tunnel,” Hagari said.
To enable the operation, the IDF’s 98th Division launched a new offensive in Khan Younis earlier this week. Hagari said the troops have killed numerous terror operatives amid the offensive so far.
The bodies of the hostages were brought back to Israel on Wednesday afternoon and taken to be identified. Once they were identified, the families of the hostages were notified.
There are now thought to be 111 hostages in Gaza, including the remains of 39 confirmed dead by the IDF, out of the 251 people abducted during the Hamas onslaught nearly 300 days ago.
Brodski and Ahimas were killed while serving in the forward command team of Col. Asaf Hamami, the commander of the Gaza Division’s Southern Brigade, who was also killed on October 7 as they tried to fight off dozens of Hamas terrorists invading Kibbutz Nirim. The bodies of all three were abducted to Gaza, where Hamami’s remains are believed to still be.
Goldin, who ran Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak’s mechanic shop, was among the first members of the community’s civilian defense team to respond to the attack. He was killed in the fighting and his body was taken to Gaza.
Goren, from Nir Oz, was setting up the kibbutz’s kindergarten on the morning of October 7 when the Hamas attack erupted and she was snatched by the terrorists. Her husband, Avner, also 56, was murdered inside the couple’s home during the attack.
Katz was a member of the Kibbutz Nir Oz security team, who battled the terrorists on October 7, before being killed and his body abducted.
Troops operating in Gaza have managed so far to rescue seven hostages alive, along with the remains of 24 other captives, including the five recovered Wednesday and three abductees mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that.
One more person has been listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
Hamas rockets kill two Palestinian civilians
Rockets launched by Hamas on Wednesday from the Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in the Gaza Strip struck a United Nations-run school in Khan Younis, killing and wounding Palestinians, the IDF said.
According to the IDF, it received reports from international aid organizations that two civilians were killed and several more were wounded after the rockets struck UNRWA’s Al-Qarara school.
The IDF said the rockets were fired by Hamas from the humanitarian zone, but failed to cross the border into Israel, falling short on the school in Khan Younis.
In a move coordinated by COGAT and the World Health Organization, the wounded Palestinians were taken to a field hospital run by the International Medical Corps in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah, the IDF added.
More than 60 targets were struck by Israeli Air Force fighter jets, attack helicopters and drones in the Gaza Strip over the past day, the military said earlier Wednesday, as ground troops continued operations in Khan Younis, Rafah, and the Netzarim Corridor area.
In Khan Younis, the IDF said troops with the 98th Division killed numerous gunmen and destroyed some 50 sites belonging to terror groups over the past day.
Soldier dies apparently after inhaling toxic fumes in Gaza
A soldier died and two more were seriously hurt overnight in a non-combat incident in the southern Gaza Strip that is under Military Police investigation, the IDF announced Thursday.
The soldier was named as Staff Sgt. Noam Douek, 19, of the 401st Armored Brigade’s 9th Battalion, from Kiryat Motzkin. Two more soldiers of the 9th Battalion were listed in serious condition.
The military suspected that Douek was killed and the other soldiers were hurt by toxic fumes from a generator in the room they were sleeping in overnight.
Further details were under investigation by the Military Police.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 329. The toll includes a police officer killed in a hostage rescue mission and a Defense Ministry civilian contractor.
