Israeli forces have recovered the bodies of three hostages that had been held in the Gaza Strip since the Palestinian militant group Hamas’s 2023 attack, the military and prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.
The hostages were identified as civilians Ofra Keidar and Yonatan Samerano, and soldier Shay Levinson. They were killed on the day of the attack, on October 7th, 2023, the military said.
With their retrieval, 50 hostages now remain in Gaza, only 20 of whom are believed to be alive.
The abduction of Mr Samerano (21) at the time of his death, by a man later identified by Israeli officials as a worker at the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency Unrwa, was caught on CCTV.
About 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli authorities.
The subsequent Israeli campaign against Hamas in Gaza has since killed more than 55,000 Palestinians, according to health authorities in the Hamas-run strip, displaced almost the entire 2.3 million population, plunged the enclave into humanitarian crisis and left much of the territory in ruins.
Meanwhile in the UK, home secretary Yvette Cooper is expected to move to proscribe Palestine Action in coming days after an incident on Friday at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire when two aircraft were spray-painted.
Trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds said on Sunday it was the fourth attack by the group on key UK defence assets and that those interfering over a period of time with defence infrastructure should expect “a very robust response”.
“I would also say those people do no service to the Palestinian cause, which is a noble one,” Mr Reynolds told the BBC.
But reports of a move to proscribe the group, which would in effect label it as a terrorist organisation, have been met criticism from some, including MPs, Amnesty International and former Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf.
A Thames Valley police investigation into the incident has been taken over by counter-terrorism police, while the ministry of defence said it was reviewing security at its bases.
Palestine Action released a short video showing two people driving electric scooters unimpeded inside the airbase at night and spraying two military planes.
The group said it had targeted RAF Voyager aircraft used for transport and refuelling, and that “activists have interrupted Britain’s direct participation in the commission of genocide and war crimes across the Middle East”.
[ Dublin school cancels ‘Prayer for Palestine Day’ amid ‘differing opinions’Opens in new window ]
During a protest march in London on Saturday, Mr Yousaf accused the UK government of “abusing” anti-terror laws against Palestine Action. He later said on X: “If the UK Government believes those protesting against the atrocities in Gaza are terrorists, but those killing children should be supported and provided with weapons, then this Government has not only lost its way, it has lost its conscience.”
Palestine Action was founded in 2020 by Huda Ammori, whose father is Palestinian, and Richard Barnard, a left-wing activist. The organisation, which focuses its campaigns on multinational arms dealers and corporate banks, recently targeted a factory in Shenstone, Staffordshire, claiming it made drones for the Israeli army. – Reuters, Guardian
