The IDF has informed the families of three Israeli hostages that their bodies have been found in Gaza.

According to IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari, the bodies were recovered by the IDF and Shin Bet in an overnight operation in Gaza. Itzhak Gelerenter, Shani Louk and Amit Buskila were all at the Nova music festival near Re’im and are believed to have been killed there before being taken to Gaza.

In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “My wife Sara and I grieve with the families, we will return all of our hostages — living and deceased alike.

“I congratulate our brave forces who, with determined action, returned our sons and daughters home,” 

Shani Louk, a German citizen, was videoed in the back of a Hamas truck driven through Gaza in the early hours of Hamas’s assault.

A photo from October 7 depicting Hamas terrorists with the corpse of German-Israeli Louk was awarded a prestigious journalism prize, along with a collection of other graphic photos from the Israel-Hamas war, by the world’s oldest photojournalism award competition, sparking outrage online.

According to a non-profit organisation representing the families of Israeli hostages, IDF representatives arrived at Buskila’s family home this morning to notify her parents that their daughter’s body had been recovered during a ground operation in Rafah.

Following the IDF report that bodies were found in Gaza Friday morning, the official Instagram page dedicated to the 28-year-old fashion stylist’s return posted: “My heart is dead dead dead. May your soul be in heaven. Why lord why why.”

Arise for Israel also reported that the bodies of Itzik Gelerenter, 58, and Shani Louk, 22, were found and recovered during a “heroic operation,” the results of which are due to be announced by the IDF spokesperson unit later today.

Buskila, who was kidnapped from the Nova festival on October 7, was an Ashdod resident raised by a single mother. During the Hamas attacks on festival goers, Buskila told her uncle over the phone that she was hiding behind cars and could hear the terrorists getting closer. Buskila then said she had been shot in the hand and can be heard in a recording of the call begging for her life before saying in a weak voice: “I’m dying, I love you.”