The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced Friday that it had recovered the bodies of Israeli hostages Amit Buskila, Itzhak Gelerenter, and Shani Louk in a special operation overnight in the Gaza Strip.
All three were murdered at the Supernova Music Festival in Re’im, in southern Israel, and their bodies taken to Gaza.
Louk was killed and her body abused on the back of a pickup truck in one of the most infamous scenes of October 7.
Gelerenter, 58, went missing on October 7 and his phone was later found by the IDF in Gaza. Buskila, 28, a fashion designer, had been heard on October 7 on a phone call with her uncle, begging Hamas terrorists not to take her.
There are over 40 hostages, out of roughly 130 still in Gaza, who are known to be dead. At least 60 are thought to be alive.
Negotiations have stalled, as Hamas has insisted on a permanent end to the war as a condition for the release of hostages. It also has not committed to the release of all remaining hostages, but just old, sick, and female hostages.
Though the news is bad, many Israelis feel it confirms the decision to press ahead with military operations in the southern city of Rafah, as well as in areas of northern Gaza that still have some Hamas presence. In addition to destroying the last Hamas battalions, the IDF hopes to rescue and recover at least some of the remaining hostages.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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