The Israeli army announced on Friday that it had recovered the bodies of three hostages during an overnight operation in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip. Chanan Yablonka, 42 years old, Michel Nisenbaum, a 59 year old Brazilian Israeli and Orion Hernandez Radoux, a 32 year old French Mexican, were picked up by Hamas militiamen and then taken to the Strip last October 7, the day of the Hamas attack against Israel which started the war currently underway.
Nisenbaum had probably been kidnapped while he was picking up his niece near a military base in the city of Sderot, while Yablonka and Hernandez Radoux were participating in the Supernova music festival, a rave party in southern Israel attacked by Hamas militiamen. Hernandez Radoux was the partner of Shani Louk, a 23-year-old woman who was also taken hostage and who had been much talked about in the days following the attack due to a video circulating on social media showing her in a van with some militiamen, half naked and lying face down. Louk’s body was recovered by the Israeli army a week ago, along with those of two other hostages.
Overall, Hamas took around 250 people hostage on October 7. Since then just over 100 have been freed alive, 17 bodies have been recovered and many more hostages are believed to have died. The release of the hostages is one of Israel’s main demands in negotiations with Hamas for a ceasefire, which have been going on for months without success.
