Click to see full-size image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
On December 15, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced that its troops had recovered the bodied of three hostages who were taken to the Gaza Strip by Palestinian fighters during the October 7 surprise attack on Israel.
One of the bodies belonged to civilian hostage Elia Toledano, 28, who was captured from the Supernova music festival near the settlement of Re’im during the October 7 surprise attack on Israel.
Toledano’s body was retrieved from Gaza during an operation carried out by the Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 504 and the 551st Brigade. After his body was brought back to Israel and identified by medical and rabbinical authorities, his family was notified. There were no details on how he died or when.
Elia Toledano. Via X.
The other two bodies belonged to soldiers, Cpl. Nik Beizer, 19, and Sgt. Ron Sherman, 19. The IDF said that it had informed the soldiers’ families.
Beizer was reportedly serving at the Erez Crossing, while Sherman was situated in another base next to Gaza. Sherman was spotted alive in a video from the Strip that surfaced online a few hours after he was captured, according to Hebrew media.
Cpl. Nik Beizer and Sgt. Ron Sherman. Via X.
Some 134 hostages remain in Gaza out of the 240 taken during the October 7 attack, which was led by the Hamas Movement.
A temporary ceasefire from November 24 to December 1 saw the release of 105 civilian hostages, Israeli women and children and foreign nationals, held by Hamas. Four hostages were released prior to the temporary ceasefire, a hostage was released in late November and one was allegedly freed by IDF troops.
The bodies of eight hostages have also been recovered, including the last three. The IDF has so far confirmed the deaths of some 20 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.
While operations in Gaza helped the IDF collect some intelligence on the hostages, they were not without a cost. The IDF announced the death of another soldier in Gaza on December 15, pushing the toll of slain troops in ground operations there to 117.
The soldier was identified as Sgt. Oz Shmuel Aradi, a 19-year-old soldier with the Combat Engineering Corps’ 603rd Battalion, from the settlement of Hatzor near Ashdod. He was killed in action in the southern part of the Strip on December 14.
In addition, four reservist soldiers were seriously injured in fighting yesterday across the Palestinian enclave, according to the IDF.
Oz Shmuel Aradi. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
After the temporary ceasefire in Gaza, Israel ended indirect talks with Hamas on the remaining hostages. However, recent reports in Hebrew and Arab media indicate that the talks had resumed with help from Qatar and the United States who helped broker the first agreement.
