The IDF released new details about the rescue of the bodies of hostages Ravid Katz, Maya Goren, Oren Goldin, Staff Sgt. Tomer Yaakov Ahimas and Kiril Brodski from Gaza. At the beginning of the week, IDF forces exchanged fire with terrorists near the tunnel where the bodies were located in Khan Younis, and the bodies were later found in a 200-meter tunnel section after a long excavation.
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Five murdered hostages rescued in a daring operation
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit,Hostages and Missing Families Forum)
The hostage bodies were being held below an area that was designated as a humanitarian area by the IDF, an area for Gazan civilians to move away from the battlefield and receive humanitarian aid and shelter. The IDF had operated at the beginning of the year to destroy and cut off the Hamas tunnels. According to the IDF's estimates, the terrorists hid the bodies after the operation ended during the spring.
Footage from the heroic operation
(Video: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
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Engineering Corps soldiers in the excavation operation
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
Before the destruction of the tunnels in Khan Younis in March, the Engineering Corps soldiers investigated them to make sure that they did not contain hostages' bodies. They found the bodies were hidden in a tunnel section of about 200 meters long, in living rooms, bathrooms and underground living quarters which show the tunnel's importance for Hamas.
"This is a further example of how Hamas cynically exploited the Humanitarian Area and used it to hold captive Israelis killed and abducted on October 7," the IDF said in a statement.
Footage from the operation to recover the bodies
The soldiers found indications of the tunnel on Tuesday night. After that, they dug for 12 hours in an excavation operation. The Engineering Corps soldiers worked under heavy security with the help of engineering tools, but also by hand, until they uncovered the wrapped bodies hidden underground.
The operation was commanded by the new commander of the elite Egoz unit, Lt. Col. E.. for whom this was the first operation of his new position. At the beginning of the war, he was wounded in Khan Younis by friendly fire, and after three months of rehabilitation he replaced Lt. Col. M., who was replaced by Lt. Col. Efraim Tehila after being wounded on October 7. M. will soon return to active service and will command a reserve brigade now that Lt. Col. E. assumed his position.
Soldiers saying Kaddish after finding hostages' bodies
On Wednesday, the IDF announced it recovered the bodies of Maya Goren and Ravid Katz from Nir Oz and that the body of Oren Goldin from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak's emergency security squad had been recovered; and on Thursday it announced that the bodies of the two soldiers, Staff Sgt. Tomer Yaakov Ahimas and Sergeant Kiril Brodski, had also been recovered. The retrieval of the bodies was part of the raid of the 98th Division in Khan Younis, based on accurate intelligence from the Shin Bet and the Intelligence Directorate. The extraction was completed without engaging terrorists. The bodies were transported to Israel in an APC.
A reserve soldier recorded the extraction of the bodies in the APC and the video was posted online. He was permanently dismissed from reserve service and was sentenced to 10 days in military prison. The soldier illegally filmed the bodies from Gaza before their identities were confirmed, and the video went viral before the families were notified. The IDF stated that "the IDF views this transgression seriously and condemns behavior that endangers the security of our forces, and offends the hostages' families."
The official announcement of the IDF spokesperson stated that the 98th Division, led by Shin Bet investigators and field operatives, found the hostages during the operation. Goren and Goldin were murdered in the massacre carried out by Hamas in the Gaza border communities. Ahimas and Brodski were killed in the battles against the terrorists, and their bodies were kidnapped to Gaza.