Bodies of Israeli hostages were retrieved from Gaza tunnel, military says

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The bodies of five Israeli hostages retrieved this week from the Gaza Strip had been held in a tunnel deep underground, Israel's military said on Thursday.

The retrieval operation was carried out using intelligence gathered and analyzed in recent weeks, said military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. It took place "in the heart" of the city of Khan Younis, where Israeli forces returned to operate this week, he said.

The hostages' bodies were hidden "in a branched tunnel about 200 meters long and about 20 meters underground", Hagari said.

On Wednesday, Israeli forces recovered the bodies of five hostages killed in Hamas' Oct. 7 attack and then taken to Gaza where they were held since. They included a kindergarten teacher taken from her kibbutz in southern Israel and four reserve and conscript soldiers who had tried to repel the Hamas attack.

(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)