Israeli forces have recovered the bodies of three hostages from Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) say.
The bodies were those of Shani Louk, Amit Buskila and Itzhak Gelerenter, the report said. The IDF said they were killed on October 7 and their remains returned to Gaza.
Local media reported that the bodies were found in a Hamas tunnel.
About 1,200 people were killed in an unprecedented attack when Hamas gunmen invaded Israel. They took 252 others as hostages to Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the news “heartbreaking.”
“We will return all our hostages, both living and dead,” he said.
In a statement, the IDF said the bodies were recovered in an overnight operation. It said it had acted on intelligence obtained from “interrogations of terrorists” held in Gaza.
It said the three victims were killed at an intersection near the site of the Nova Festival massacre in southern Israel before their bodies were taken to Gaza.
More than 360 people died at the festival. About 125 hostages are still missing; the others have been released or rescued.
