Los Angeles Times

Israel recovers bodies of 6 hostages from Gaza

Airstrikes in north and central areas kill 25 as U.S. secretary of State and others fall short in efforts for a cease-fire.

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said Tuesday that it recovered the bodies of six hostages taken in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that started the war in Gaza, as U.S. and Arab mediators failed to advance an agreement to halt the fighting and release scores of other militant-held captives.

The military said its forces recovered the six bodies of hostages in an overnight operation in the southern Gaza Strip, saying they were killed during a time that troops were operating in Khan Yunis. The militant group Hamas says some captives have been killed in Israeli airstrikes. Hostages who have returned to Israel have talked about difficult conditions in captivity, including lack of food or medication­s.

An Israeli airstrike Tuesday killed at least 12 people at a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City in what the military said was a precision strike on a Hamas command center. Another strike killed a mother and her five children in central Gaza. In Deir al Balah, an airstrike killed seven people.

The recovery of the hostages’ remains is a blow to Hamas, which hopes to exchange its captives for Palestinia­n prisoners, an Israeli withdrawal and a lasting cease-fire. But it was also likely to increase pressure on Israel’s government to reach a deal to free dozens more hostages who are still believed to be alive.

The Israeli military said it had identified the remains of Chaim Perry, 80; Yoram Metzger, 80; Avraham Munder, 79; Alexander Dancyg, 76; Nadav Popplewell, 51; and Yagev Buchshtav, 35. Metzger, Munder, Popplewell and Buchshtav had family members who were also abducted but freed during a November cease-fire.

Munder’s death was confirmed Tuesday by Kibbutz Nir Oz, the farming community where he was among about 80 residents who were taken captive. It said he died

“after enduring months of physical and mental torture.” Israeli authoritie­s previously determined that the other five were deceased.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the recovery effort and said “our hearts ache for the terrible loss.”

The news brought fresh grief for many Israelis who have long pressed Netanyahu to agree to a cease-fire that would bring remaining hostages home. New protests were held Tuesday. “The longer they’re there, the more body bags we get,” said one protester, Adi Israeli, in Tel Aviv.

Hamas is still believed to be holding about 110 hostages captured in the Oct. 7 attack. Israeli authoritie­s estimate around a third of them are dead.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken ended his visit to the Middle East — his ninth since the start of the war in Gaza — without securing any major breakthrou­gh for a cease-fire deal, warning on Tuesday that “time is of the essence” even as Israel and Hamas signaled that challenges remain.

After meetings in fellow mediating countries Egypt and Qatar, Blinken said that because Israel has accepted a U.S. proposal to bridge gaps with the militant group, the focus turns to doing everything possible to “get Hamas on board” and ensure both sides agree to key details on implementa­tion. “Our message is simple. It’s clear and it’s urgent,” he told reporters before leaving Qatar. “We need to get a cease-fire and hostage agreement over the finish line, and we need to do it now. Time is of the essence.”

There has been added urgency to seal a deal after the recent killings of militant leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah in Iran and Lebanon, both blamed on Israel, and vows of retaliatio­n that have sparked fears of a wider regional war.

Few details have been released about the so-called bridging proposal put forth by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar. Blinken said it is “very clear on the schedule and the locations of [Israeli military] withdrawal­s from Gaza.”

Hamas called the latest proposal presented to it a “reversal” of what it had agreed to, and accused the United States in a statement of acquiescin­g to new conditions from Israel. There was no immediate U.S. response.

Blinken’s comments on ending his latest IsraelHama­s peace mission were notably bare of the optimism that Biden administra­tion officials expressed going into his trip, and even before that.

The upbeat tone through much of the spring and summer — with U.S. officials at times describing a cease-fire and hostage deal as nearer than ever — reflected necessary messaging, at least in part, said Jonathan Panikoff, director of the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Middle East

Program.

“If they don’t project optimism, then it won’t create ... even the potential for sufficient momentum to keep things going,” Panikoff said.

Americans have little alternativ­e to continuing to push Israel and Hamas to agree to a negotiated end to fighting, but it’s fundamenta­lly about Netanyahu and new Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who helped mastermind the Oct. 7 attack, Panikoff said. And they are “the two people that have been, frankly, most skeptical from the beginning” about making peace.

Blinken’s meetings in Egypt, which borders Gaza, and in Qatar, which hosts some Hamas leaders in exile, came a day after he met Netanyahu. Wide gaps appeared to remain between Israel and Hamas, though angry statements often serve as pressure tactics during negotiatio­ns.

Hamas-led militants burst through Israel’s defenses on Oct. 7 and attacked across the south, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage. More than 100 were released during a cease-fire in the fall.

Israel’s retaliator­y offensive has killed more than 40,000 Palestinia­ns, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, whose numbers do not differenti­ate between civilians and combatants.

Frankel writes for the Associated Press. AP reporters Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al Balah, Samy Magdy in Cairo and Matthew Lee in El Alamein, Egypt, contribute­d to this report.