Israel recovers bodies of 3 hostages from music festival

(NewsNation) — The Israel Defense Forces announced it had recovered the bodies of three people who had been attending the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023, during the Hamas attack.

The three hostages were identified as Shani Louk, Amit Buskila and Itzik Gelerenter.

According to the IDF, the three were killed attempting to escape the festival, and their bodies were taken back to Gaza. There are conflicting reports about where they were found, and the IDF has not specified.

The bodies were located based on intelligence information, and the three were formally identified by the Israeli National Forensic Institute and Ministry of Health.

Louk was a German Israeli citizen and tattoo artist who was previously known to be deceased after a piece of her skull was located several months ago. She is one of the hostages who made headlines after images of her mangled body being carried in the back of a truck were spread on social media.

Buskila was on the phone with her uncle, attempting to escape by trying to hide between cars, when he reportedly heard her scream "No!" followed by gunshots.

Gelerenter leaves behind four children and two grandchildren and had reportedly arrived at the festival just hours before the attack.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted the country would "return all of our hostages, the living and the deceased alike," in the wake of the news.