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Bodies of two Israeli-American hostages taken in 7 October attack recovered, Netanyahu says – Israel-Gaza war live | Gaza

Israel PM says bodies of two Israeli-American hostages retrieved from Gaza

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday the bodies of two Israeli-Americans killed in Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack and held in Gaza had been returned to Israel.

Netanyahu said the remains of Judih Weinstein Haggai and Gad Haggai were recovered and returned to Israel in a special operation by the army and the Shin Bet internal security agency. According to the Associated Press (AP). He said in a statement:

Together with all the citizens of Israel, my wife and I extend our heartfelt condolences to the dear families. Our hearts ache for the most terrible loss. May their memory be blessed.

Nir Oz kibbutz announced the deaths of Weinstein, 70, and Haggai, 72, in December 2023. The military said they were killed in the 7 October 2023 attack and that their bodies were recently recovered from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

The Israeli-American couple were taking an early morning walk near their home in Nir Oz kibbutz on the morning of 7 October 2023 when Hamas militants stormed across the border and rampaged through several army bases and farming communities.

Gad Haggai and Judih Weinstein Haggai, residents of the Nir Oz kibbutz, came under attack while taking a morning walk on Saturday 7 October 2023. Photograph: family handout

In the early hours of the morning, Weinstein was able to call emergency services and let them know that she and her husband had been shot and send a message to her family.

In other developments:

  • A US- and Israeli-backed group operating aid sites in Gaza pushed back the reopening of its facilites set for Thursday, as the Israeli army warned that roads leading to distribution centres were “considered combat zones”. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) closed its aid distribution centres after a string of deadly incidents near sites it operates that drew sharp condemnation from the United Nations.

  • Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 10 people in the battered Palestinian territory on Thursday as the military keeps up an intensified offensive. “Ten martyrs so far resulting from Israeli strikes since dawn,” agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP, adding that they had targeted an area where displaced civilians were sheltering in the southern city of Khan Younis and houses in Gaza City and the central town of Deir el-Balah.

  • UN security council members criticised the US on Wednesday after it vetoed a resolution calling for a ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access in Gaza, which Washington said undermined ongoing diplomacy. “Today, the United States sent a strong message by vetoing a counterproductive UN security council resolution on Gaza targeting Israel,” secretary of state Marco Rubio said in a statement after Wednesday’s 14 to 1 vote.

  • Israeli bombardment on Wednesday killed at least 48 people across the Gaza Strip, including 14 in a single strike on a tent sheltering displaced people, the civil defence agency said. A day earlier, the civil defence and the International Committee of the Red Cross said 27 people were killed when Israeli troops opened fire near a GHF site in southern Gaza. The military said the incident was under investigation.

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Updated at 09.20 BST

Key events

Here are some of the latest images coming in via the newswires:

This picture, taken from the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip, shows smoke billowing during an Israeli strike on the Palestinian territory on Thursday. Photograph: Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images
Mourners place wreaths over the tomb of Israeli soldier Alon Farkas, reportedly killed in combat with Hamas fighters in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, in the Israeli town of Pardes Hanna-Karkur. Photograph: Jalaa Marey/AFP/Getty Images
Rihan Sharab, a Palestinian mother, distributes her handcrafted toys to children in the Mewasi camp ahead of Eid al-Adha. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
People stage a protest against Maersk and the Port of Rotterdam’s alleged role in shipping F-35 parts to Israel during a pro-Palestinian gathering near Rotterdam city hall on Wednesday. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
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