TEL AVIV, June 5. /TASS/. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that security forces had discovered and recovered the bodies of two hostages during an operation in the Gaza Strip.

"The Israel Security Agency and the Israel Defense Forces conducted an operation in the Gaza Strip, during which the bodies of two hostages, Gadi Haggai and Judy Weinstein, who were being held by the terrorist organization Hamas, were returned to Israel," Netanyahu's office quoted him as saying.

The IDF press service reported that the bodies of the hostages were found on Thursday night in the Khan Yunis area in the southern Gaza Strip. "Judi Lynn Weinstein and Gad Haggai, members of Kibbutz Nir Oz, were brutally murdered and abducted from the Kibbutz on October 7, 2023 by terrorists of the Palestinian Mujahideen terrorist organization. The couple Judi and Gad, parents of four, were 70 and 72 at the time of their deaths," the army said.

The press service noted that "the rescue operation was conducted by IDF troops in coordination with the Intelligence Directorate and special forces." "The operation was made possible as a result of precise intelligence provided by the Hostage Task Force, the Intelligence Directorate, and the ISA," the military added. The identification procedure was carried out at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Israel.

According to The Times of Israel, Haggai and Weinstein had US citizenship in addition to Israeli citizenship. The newspaper pointed out that radicals continue to hold 56 hostages in the Gaza Strip, 20 of whom are alive.