Today (Tuesday), the Chief of the General Staff, LTG Herzi Halevi, toured the Gaza Strip with the Commanding Officer of the Southern Command, MG Yaron Finkelman, the Commanding Officer of the Gaza Division, BG Avi Rosenfeld, the brigade commanders and the commanders and soldiers of the Netzah Yehuda Battalion.
Halevi addressed the recovery last night of the bodies of six hostages from Gaza.
"Last night, in an operation that didn’t happen by chance, that was based on intelligence that was followed for a very long time and had developed, we had information about a location where our deceased hostages were located, and went to bring them out from a tunnel, ten meters underground, to reach, dig, locate the tunnel, enter, and bring back our people, that we would very much have liked to bring back alive, but even bringing a body for burial in Israel is a very, very important task," Halevi said.
"It is a mission, and last night night we completed this mission for six of them. We are very determined to fight Hamas, very determined to return all the hostages, whoever we can alive, and we will also be very, very determined and persistent in bringing back those no longer alive for burial in Israel."
In the operation, the bodies of hostages Nadav Popplewell, Yagev Buchshtab, Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Haim Perry and Alexander Dancyg, were rescued and returned to the State of Israel.