Israeli military repatriates bodies of two people kidnapped by Hamas
The Israeli military announced Tuesday that it had recovered two bodies of Israelis held by Hamas in Gaza in an operation that killed two Israeli soldiers.
The bodies of two Israelis, 28-year-old Eden Zacharia and 36-year-old Ziv Dado, held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip were recovered by Israeli soldiers and brought back to Israel, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari announced Tuesday evening.
The operation to recover the bodies was carried out by the Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 504 and the 551st Brigade, said Hagari, adding that Gal Meir Eisenkot and Eyal Meir Berkovich, two Israeli soldiers killed in action in recent days, died amid an operation to locate and retrieve the two bodies.
Gal Eisenkot, the son of Gadi Eisenkot, a former IDF chief and current member of Israel's war cabinet, and Berkovich were killed last Thursday after a tunnel shaft exploded, the IDF said.
Hagari said that notification was delivered to the families of Zacharia and Dado on Tuesday after an identification process was carried out by medical and rabbinical personnel. Israeli military radio reported that the two bodies were retrieved in a tunnel under the city of Jabaliya in northern Gaza.
