Israel’s military forces have recovered the bodies of two more hostages in Gaza.
The remains of Ilan Weiss and another unnamed captive were found just as Israel launched an offensive on the region.
Mr Weiss, 33, was killed during the attacks of October 7, 2023, at Kibbutz Be’eri.
His body was seized by Hamas and has been held for nearly two years by the terrorist group.
His wife Shiri, 53, and daughter, Noga, 18, were both also taken hostage but were released during a one-week ceasefire in November 2023.
Forensics are in the process of identifying the second recovered body, Daily Mail reported.
A total of 48 Israeli hostages remain in Gaza, according to official statistics, of which only 22 are thought to be alive.
Israel’s prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said his country ‘would not rest’ until the rest of the hostages, both living and dead, are brought home.
The latest development comes as thousands of Palestinians have been told to evacuate Gaza City ahead of large scale offensive by the Israeli military.
The IDF said it would suspend humanitarian pauses to allow aid in Gaza, while it ramps up its offensive.
Among those that have been killed have been Gazans searching for food.
Earlier this week, a ‘double tap’ attack on a hospital left 20 people dead.
The IDF claimed to have been targeting a Hamas surveillance camera.
An initial strike hit a top floor of one of the hospital’s buildings.
Reuters cameraman Hussam al-Masri was killed in that blast while filming from the site, according to a fellow journalist and a doctor at the hospital, along with a second person.
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Health workers in orange vests, journalists and relatives of patients then rushed up an external staircase to reach the site of the first blast.
Photos taken from below showed at least 16 people gathered on the staircase, trying to help those hit. No one on the staircase was seen holding weapons.
Video footage taken by Al-Ghad TV shows the second strike hitting, causing a large boom and engulfing everyone on the staircase in smoke.
Hospital officials say 18 people were killed in the second strike.
The military did not elaborate on why it struck a second time or how it would have identified militants among the crowd on the staircase.
Its statement was issued after an initial inquiry into the attack, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a ‘tragic mishap’.
He did not elaborate on the nature of any mistake.
The Israel-Hamas war has been one of the bloodiest conflicts for media workers.
Some 189 Palestinian journalists have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza in 22 months of fighting, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
On Thursday, an Israeli airstrike killed the prime minister of Yemen’s Houthi government as well as several other ministers.
Ahmad Ghaleb al-Rahwi, who became prime minister nearly a year ago, was largely seen as a figurehead rather than part of Houthi top leadership.
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