The recovery of the bodies of six Israeli prisoners by the Israeli army in Gaza this week has increased pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to secure the release of those who remain.
On October 7, 239 people were captured in Hamas attacks in southern Israel. As part of a temporary truce agreed in November, 105 prisoners were released by Hamas in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
The Israeli military has carried out operations to recover more people since then, while three captives who appeared to have escaped were mistakenly killed by Israeli forces in December as they tried to return home.
The Israeli military said the bodies of the six people recovered on Tuesday were located during an overnight military operation in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
The military said the bodies were found behind a false wall in a tunnel in an area that had previously been designated a humanitarian zone.
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari told a news conference that he was determined to repatriate all those held in Gaza, saying Israel would “not abandon any of them.”
“But we won’t be able to bring them all back in the rescue operations,” Hagari said, referring to ongoing ceasefire talks in Doha led by mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the United States aimed at securing the release of the captives, ensuring more aid can enter Gaza and ending the fighting.
What is known about the six people whose bodies were found on Tuesday, and how many captives are still being held in Gaza?
How many captives are still being held in Gaza?
According to the Israeli army, 109 prisoners remain in Gaza, but only 73 are believed to be still alive.
Most of them were captured by Hamas during the group’s October 7 attacks, which resulted in the deaths of 1,139 Israelis.
Who were the six people whose bodies were recovered on Tuesday?
The six captives were Chaim Perry, 80; Yoram Metzger, 80; Avraham Munder, 79; Alexander Dancyg, 76; Nadav Popplewell, 51; and Yagev Buchshtav, 35.
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the Israeli army had believed for two months that Perry, Metzger, Dancyg, Popplewell and Buchshtav were dead.
Munder’s death was not known until the military announced his body had been found Tuesday.
Munder was captured along with his wife, Ruth, his daughter, Keren, and his grandson, Ohad. All three were released during the temporary ceasefire in November.
Metzger’s wife, who was also captured on October 7, was also released as part of the deal.
Ohad, 9, told Israeli public broadcaster Kan 11 on Tuesday that the deaths of his grandfather and the others “should not have happened.”
“There have been many times when negotiations have taken place to reach an agreement… and then they said no – and in the end, they didn’t want it and always regretted it at the last minute. All the hostages could have come back alive on the first day. They could have brought back their grandfather and all the other hostages,” Ohad said.
How many captives have been freed or rescued so far?
During the six-day truce agreed in November, 105 prisoners were released. Those released from Gaza included foreign nationals, including a Filipino, a dual Israeli-Russian citizen and 23 Thai citizens.
In February, the army said it rescued two other captives, named Louis Har, 70, and Fernando Marman, 60, from an apartment building in Rafah, southern Gaza.
During the rescue operation of the two men, massive Israeli airstrikes on Rafah killed 67 Palestinian civilians, including women and children.
In June, the army announced that it had rescued four more prisoners: Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Zivm, 40, who had been abducted from a music festival near the Gaza border during the October 7 attacks. They were found alive during a military operation in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, in which more than 270 Palestinians were killed and 700 wounded.
How many captives are estimated to have died?
Although the exact number of dead captives is not known, the Israeli military estimates that about a third of the captives still in Gaza are dead.
After the June rescue mission, Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, said some of the remaining captives had been killed in the Israeli operation.
Last week, Abu Obeida also announced that an Israeli prisoner had been killed by a guard in Gaza and two others had been injured in a separate incident. He added that the two injured prisoners were receiving medical treatment in an attempt to save their lives.
At his press conference Tuesday, Hagari declined to comment further on how many captives are believed to still be alive.
What do we know about how the captives died?
Hagari said the Israeli military was investigating the deaths of the six captives whose bodies were recovered Tuesday after a report by the Israeli news website Ynet alleged that some of the deaths were caused by an Israeli operation in Khan Younis six months ago.
The report said the captives may have died of asphyxiation after the military struck a nearby target, causing the tunnel they were being held in to flood with carbon dioxide.
Asked about the report, Hagari declined to confirm whether the captives were killed as a result of military action. He said the military would inform families and the public of its findings on how the captives died in due course.
What do the Israelis say about the captives?
In Israel, protesters have been gathering every week to demand a ceasefire that would allow the last prisoners to be repatriated. Another rally is planned for Saturday in Tel Aviv.
The victims’ families accuse Netanyahu and his government of refusing to reach an agreement to repatriate those still in Gaza.
Zahiro Shahar Mor, Munder’s nephew, lambasted Israeli authorities who he said had “torpedoed” opportunities to sign a ceasefire and return captives early.
“My uncle was a war hero who spent his whole life building the country. Hamas captured him, but it is the Israeli government that continues to abandon him,” he told Reuters news agency.
“I will not stop fighting for them to get back the people who are still alive. Otherwise, there is no future for the State of Israel. No one will want to live in a state that does not take care of its citizens, that betrays them and abandons them.”
The Hostage Families Forum, an organization that represents many of the families of captives, renewed its call for the government to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas.
“The direct and full responsibility for the fate of the negotiations lies with the prime minister. The constant attempts to criticize the negotiating teams, to blame the mediators, the media, the families of the abducted and the abducted themselves – all this amounts to throwing dust in the eyes,” the group said on X on Wednesday.
“The Prime Minister is responsible,” he added.
