Israel strikes Gaza as military recovers five captive bodies
Israeli strikes hit Gaza yesterday, killing and injuring people according to Palestinian medical sources, as the military said it had recovered the bodies of five Israelis taken to Gaza by Hamas militants after they were killed on October 7.
A group supporting Israeli hostages still held in the Palestinian territory welcomed the rescue but alleged “sabotage” of efforts to free others. The accusation from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum came with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a visit to Washington.
Netanyahu – whose critics accuse him of prolonging the fighting – is meeting US President Joe Biden, who has been pushing a truce and hostage-release deal.
In a speech to the US Congress
nd on Wednesday, Netanyahu downplayed Palestinian civilian casualties during the more than nine months of war between Israeli forces and Hamas.
He again vowed to destroy the Islamist group and bring home the hostages.
The Hamas attack that started the war on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Out of 251 people taken hostage that day, 111 are still held in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.
At least 39,175 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's military campaign in Gaza since the war began, according to the health ministry of the Hamasrun territory, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.
The latest toll includes 30 deaths over the previous 24 hours.
Palestinian medical services yesterday said their teams had transported four dead and 12 wounded after a strike on a house in the Gaza City area in the north of the territory.
An AFP correspondent reported air strikes and machine gun fire from tanks in Gaza City. To the south, witnesses said there was shelling in the Khan Yunis city and Rafah areas, as well as air strikes in AlQarara, near Khan Yunis.
Israel’s military said the five bodies recovered from Gaza, including those of two soldiers and two reservists, had been returned to Israel following a rescue operation on Wednesday in Khan Yunis.
After the military warned it would “forcefully operate” in the area, the Gaza health ministry on Monday said an Israeli operation had killed 70 people and wounded more than 200.
The five Israelis recovered had previously been announced as having died, and the military as well as the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said militants had killed them on October 7.
The Forum has regularly protested in Israel for a deal to get the remaining captives home.
Yesterday it demanded an urgent meeting with Israel’s team for negotiating a ceasefire and hostage-release deal, saying a “crisis of trust” had emerged. (AFP)