Israel announces that the bodies of four hostages found were recovered from the tunnels of Jabaliya after fierce battles

The bodies of four hostages recovered from Gaza last week were found in tunnels under Jabaliya, where Israeli soldiers have engaged in heavy fighting in recent days, the Israeli military said Monday.

The army said last week it had recovered the bodies of Ron Benjamin, Yitzhak Glanter, Shani Locke and Amit Boskila, all of whom it said were killed during the Hamas offensive on southern Israel on October 7.

The Israeli army said in a statement on Monday evening that their remains had been recovered from underground tunnels in Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip.

During a military operation, Israeli soldiers discovered the opening of a tunnel during a search of a suspicious building, he said, adding that the soldiers then entered the underground tunnel in a night operation and fought inside it.

The Israeli army said that during the clash, soldiers found the bodies of the hostages and recovered them from the tunnels.

The Israeli army said last week that Glanter, Luke and Busquilla were kidnapped from the Nova music festival and killed, while Benjamin was killed at the Mflasim junction where his body was transported to Gaza.

Thousands of young men gathered on 6 and 7 October for a concert near Kibbutz Ra’im on the Gaza border.

Israeli officials said Hamas fighters crossed the border from Gaza and killed more than 360 people at the rally.

The victims of the Nova festival make up about a third of the more than 1,170 people killed in the October 7 attack, most of them civilians, according to Israeli figures.

In the attack, 252 hostages were taken, 124 of whom remain in Gaza, Israel estimates, including 37 who the military says died.