This article has been updated to reflect the identification of the second body recovered.
Israeli security forces have recovered the bodies of two people who were killed in the Hamas-led attack on the country on Oct. 7, 2023, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.
It announced on Friday that Ilan Weiss’s remains had been recovered and on Saturday said that the second person had been identified as Idan Shtivi, who was also killed in the Oct. 7 attack and whose body was subsequently taken by militants into Gaza.
Their remains were recovered in a “complex rescue operation” carried out by forces from the Israeli military and Shin Bet, the domestic intelligence agency, the military said in a statement. Israeli officials did not specify where or when the operation took place.
Mr. Weiss was killed in his home village, Be’eri, in southern Israel, when hundreds of militants raided it as part of a wider attack that killed roughly 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials. Some 250 more people were abducted and taken to Gaza as hostages.
Mr. Weiss, who led the village’s civilian emergency response team, disappeared after going to the community armory when the attack began, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group representing many families of the hostages, said in a statement. His death on Oct. 7, 2023, was confirmed in absentia in January 2024, the group added.
Mr. Weiss’s wife, Shiri, and teenage daughter, Noga, were kidnapped in the attack. They were released during a brief cease-fire along with dozens of other Israeli hostages in November 2023.
Mr. Shtivi, 28, was killed near the grounds of the Nova music festival, where he had gone on the morning of Oct. 7 to photograph friends and lead workshops, the Forum said in a statement on Saturday. The desert rave, where 360 festival-goers were killed and several more abducted, became one of the assault’s deadliest sites and most searing symbols.
The recovery of the bodies comes as Israeli leaders face mounting pressure at home and abroad to reach an agreement with Hamas that would secure the release of the remaining hostages and end the war in Gaza. Israeli officials believe that 20 hostages are still alive and that Hamas is holding the bodies of about 30 more captives.
The Israeli security cabinet, a group that includes senior ministers and is led by Mr. Netanyahu, recently decided to intensify military operations in Gaza, including taking over Gaza City, the enclave’s main urban center, where thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge.
“We will not rest until everyone returns home — this is the objective of the upcoming maneuver,” the office of Israel Katz, the country’s defense minister, said in a statement on Friday, referring to the plan to widen the military offensive.
But Israel’s plan to expand operations has been condemned by many world leaders. “Israel’s initial steps to militarily take over Gaza City signal a new and dangerous phase,” António Guterres, the secretary general of the United Nations, said on Thursday.
In Israel, hundreds of thousands joined nationwide demonstrations last Tuesday, calling on the government to accept a cease-fire proposal that Hamas agreed to this month.
It is unclear whether Mr. Netanyahu will accept the proposal. A spokesman for the Israeli government, David Mencer, stopped short of saying that Israel would reject the proposal but told journalists this past week that Israel was “going for a full agreement, and no longer a piecemeal agreement.”
The post Israel Recovers Bodies of Two Oct. 7 Victims, Netanyahu’s Office Says appeared first on New York Times.
