IDF Recovers Three More Bodies of Israeli Hostages in Gaza

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced Friday that it had recovered the bodies of three more hostages in an operation in northern Gaza.

Hanan Yablonka, Michel Nisenbaum, and Orion Hernandez were murdered during the October 7 Massacre and were kidnapped to Gaza by Hamas terrorists.

Last night, in a joint IDF and ISA operation, their bodies were rescued in Jabalya and brought back home to Israel.

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— Israel ישראל (@Israel) May 24, 2024

In a statement, the IDF and Israel Security Agency (ISA, or “Shin Bet,” or “Shabak”) said:

The bodies of the hostages Hanan Yablonka, Michel Nisenbaum, and Orion Hernandez were rescued overnight during a joint IDF and ISA operation.

Based on verified intelligence in our possession, the hostages were murdered during the October 7th Massacre and were abducted from the Mefalsim Intersection to Gaza by Hamas terrorists.

The bodies of the hostages were rescued overnight during a joint IDF and ISA operation in Jabaliya, based on precise intelligence obtained and analyzed over the past days by the IDF Intelligence Directorate’s Headquarters for the Hostages and Missing Persons in collaboration with the ISA. At the beginning of the operation, intense combat was carried out in the area. 

Following an identification procedure carried out by medical officials at the Israeli National Forensic Institute and the Israel police, IDF representatives notified their families today. The IDF and ISA send their heartfelt condolences to the families.

The IDF Spokesperson calls on the public to refrain from spreading unfounded rumors and fake news and to listen to official announcements.

The IDF and ISA continue, even at this time, to deploy all operational and intelligence means in order to accomplish the supreme national task of bringing back all the hostages.

The Times of Israel added:

Radoux, a Mexican-French national, was the boyfriend of Shani Louk, one of the four hostages whose bodies were found in Jabaliya last week. Hernández Radoux and Yablonka — along with Louk and two more hostage bodies recovered last week — were at the Supernova music festival near the border community of Re’im when it was attacked by Hamas terrorists.

They had fled to the Mefalsim area where they were abducted by the terrorists.

Nisenbaum, from Sderot, was also kidnapped from the Mefalsim area with the other hostages. He had been driving to the IDF’s Gaza Division base near Re’im to collect his granddaughter who had been staying with his non-commissioned officer son-in-law, but he never made it.

Mefalsim is the community from which a Palestinian terrorist infamously called his parents on October 7, using the phone of a murdered Jewish woman, to boast that he had murdered ten Jews as part of the Hamas terror attack.

Using the official count of hostages provided by Israeli government spokespeople, the recovery of the bodies brings the number of Israeli hostages still in Gaza down to 125. At least 60 of those hostages are thought to be alive.

Israel has vowed to press ahead with its military operations in Gaza to destroy Hamas and to retrieve the hostages.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.