The IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) announced early Thursday morning that troops had recovered five bodies of hostages on Wednesday from Khan Yunis in southern Gaza and returned them to Israel.
The hostages are Maya Goren, Sgt. Kiril Brodski, Staff-Sergeant Tomer Achimas, Oren Goldin, and Warrant Officer (res.) Ravid Aryeh Katz.
The joint operation in Khan Yunis was conducted based on Shin Bet interrogations of terrorists and other precise intelligence information, the military said.
Recovering the dead hostages’ bodies was a pre-planned secret goal of the recent reinvasion of Khan Yunis, which started on Monday. The IDF first invaded Khan Yunis on December 1 and withdrew on April 7.
The IDF said that its intelligence units had been working with the Shin Bet for weeks on the exact location and preparing for an operation to recover the bodies.
Finally, late Tuesday night, the IDF discovered a tunnel in a humanitarian zone within Khan Yunis, in a general area that Hamas was using to hide behind human shields.
Despite the discovery of the tunnel during the reinvasion, Hamas forces had already fled the area by the time the IDF arrived, so there was no gunfight to take control of the tunnel area.
In a related development, an IDF reservist filmed himself with the bodies of hostages found near Khan Yunis and posted the video on the social media platform TikTok on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the IDF announced that he had been court-martialed and sentenced to 10 days of low-grade IDF detention, following which he would be permanently expelled from reservist duty.
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