Israel Today newspaper said on Tuesday that Israel is examining the bodies of six of its prisoners, who it announced were returned from Gaza on Tuesday, to confirm the possibility of their killing by its army, while internal criticism directed at the government has escalated, amid increasing calls to conclude a swap deal with the Palestinian resistance.

The newspaper confirmed that identification procedures and pathological information are likely to shed light on the circumstances of the death, according to the Israeli army spokesman.

The newspaper indicated that the bodies were discovered in a tunnel in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, noting that during the descent into the tunnel, the forces did not encounter resistance or gunfire from the militants, and there was no exchange of fire inside it.

It added: The soldiers searched the tunnel and retrieved six bodies from it, and returned them to Israel and transferred them to the Institute of Pathology in Abu Kabir (Tel Aviv) to identify them.

Responsibility and Calls

The families of the Israeli prisoners in Gaza have held the Israeli government responsible for the deaths of their relatives in the Strip.

"The State of Israel has a moral obligation to return all the dead to a dignified burial and to return all the living kidnapped to their rehabilitation," the families said on the X platform.

The families added, "The Israeli government, with the help of the mediators (Qatar, Egypt and the United States), must agree today to the deal currently on the negotiating table, to allow for the rehabilitation of the living kidnapped, a dignified burial for all the dead kidnapped, and to restore hope in Israel."

For his part, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said in a post on the X platform that "the days are passing and we are losing more and more hostages... We must make a deal immediately."

In an indirect criticism of Netanyahu and accusing him of being responsible for their deaths, Lapid added, "They were alive."

Earlier Tuesday morning, the Israeli army announced that it had recovered the bodies of six of its prisoners who had been held in the Gaza Strip since October 7, in a joint operation with the General Security Service (Shin Bet).

Joint Operation

He said in a statement, "In a joint operation carried out last night, the army was able to The Shin Bet retrieved the bodies of the kidnapped Yagiv Buchchav, Alexander Denzig, Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popul, and Haim Perry from the Khan Yunis area (southern Gaza Strip).

The Israeli army added that "this operation was carried out by soldiers from the Paratroopers Brigade, soldiers from the Yahalom Unit, and the 75th Battalion under the command of the 98th Division, in cooperation with the General Security Service forces."

He continued, "The success of the operation is due to accurate information from the Shin Bet, the intelligence units, and the Abductees Department in the Intelligence Department, which resulted in locating the bodies in the Khan Yunis area."

The army added, "In conjunction with the military efforts, the Abductees Team of the Manpower Department, in cooperation with the Forensic Institute and the Israel Police, identified the abductees and informed the families."

On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched an attack on settlements adjacent to the Gaza Strip, during which it captured dozens, and hundreds of Israelis were killed during the attack, most of them soldiers.

Before talking about removing these bodies, Israel said that it still had 115 prisoners in Gaza, including a number of dead.

With American support, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7, which has left more than 133,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing, amid massive destruction and deadly famine.

Source: Al Jazeera + Anadolu