The bodies of Shani Louk, Amit Buskila, Itzik Gelenter, and Ron Binyamin were found in a tunnel in Jabalya in northern Gaza last weekend, the IDF revealed on Monday.
The IDF succeeded in finding the bodies after months of intelligence work by the Shin Bet and the Prisoners and Missing Persons Headquarters.
Soldiers from the Paratroopers Brigade fought for three days in the area where the bodies were located. In a joint operation, paratroopers and the Shin Bet searched a suspicious building where they found a tunnel entrance. Soldiers from the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit entered the tunnel in an overnight operation, removing blockades and finding documents, devices, and weapons.
While operating in the tunnel, the Yahalom soldiers, Shin Bet officers, and Unit 504 found the bodies of the hostages.
The Prisoners and Missing Persons team in the Personnel Division, which is entrusted with accompanying the families of the hostages, together with the Institute of Forensic Medicine and Israel Police worked to identify the hostages and inform the families.
IDF announces discover of hostages' bodies
The IDF announced on Friday and Saturday that they had found the bodies of Louk, Buskila, Gelenter, and Binyamin.
Louk, Buskila, and Gelenter were murdered by Hamas at the Nova Music Festival, while Binyamin was killed near Kibbutz Meflasim.