JERUSALEM

The Israeli army has recovered the bodies of two hostages who were killed during the Oct. 7 attack last year by the Palestinian group Hamas and were being held in Gaza, local media reported Wednesday.

“More than nine months after they were murdered on Oct. 7, the IDF (army) returned to Israel the bodies of hostages Maya Goren and Oren Goldin,” said Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth daily, citing an announcement by the Nir Oz kibbutz.

The announcement noted that Goren “will return to the land of the kibbutz she loved and will be buried next to her husband Avner Goren, who was also murdered and abandoned on the Black Shabbat,” referring to the Oct. 7 attack.

A statement from the Nir Yitzhak kibbutz said “tonight we were informed of the rescue operation of Oren Goldin, a member of the kibbutz's emergency security squad, who fell on Oct. 7.”

Israel Hayom, another Israeli newspaper, reported that Goldin was killed on Oct. 7 and Hamas had held his body since.

There has been no comment from Hamas regarding the reports.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive against Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

At least 39,100 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 90,000 injured, according to local health authorities.

Over nine months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio