A Mixture of Grief and Relief

Israel announced the recovery of the bodies of six dead hostages from the Khan Yunis area in Gaza today, as the result of a rescue operation conducted by a combination of defence and security forces.

Nadav Popplewell, Yagev Buchshtab, Yoram Metzger, Haim Peri, Alexander Dancyg, and Avraham Munder were taken hostage on October 7th and all died whilst in Hamas captivity. The Israel Defence Forces will now carry out further investigations into the exact cause of their deaths.

Yagev Buchshtab, Alexander Dancyg, Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell, and Haim Perry
(photo credit: Hostages and Missing Families Forum).

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant hailed the rescue operation as “daring and dangerous” and said he shares the families’ grief over the loss of their loved ones – five of whom had previously been announced as dead.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also sent condolences to the families and said:

“The State of Israel will continue to make every effort to return all our hostages
 – both the living and the fallen.”

But alongside the grief of these families there is also relief in Israel.

A suicide bomb attack that took place in Tel Aviv on Sunday went wrong, with the bomb detonating before the bomber had reached his target.

At the time of the explosion, he was close to a synagogue which was said to have had more than 80 people inside for evening prayers. There was also a football stadium not too far away, with a match in progress.

Some people see the hand of God in preventing many casualties in the attack, partly because a truck drove past the bomber at the exact time his bomb went off and absorbed much of the power of the explosion. The bomber was the only one who died, while one other person was slightly injured.

It is also known that many Christians around the world are praying for God to help defend the Israelis as they face attacks from as many as seven different fronts.