“The bodies of the hostages (Chanan) Yablonka (Israeli, Editor’s note), Michel Nisenbaum (Israeli-Brazilian, Editor’s note), and Orion Hernandez (Radoux, Franco-Mexican, Editor’s note) were recovered during the night during a joint operation” of the Israeli army and intelligence services in Jabalia, in the north of the war territory, the army said in a statement. The three bodies were returned to Israel.
These three men were among 124 people still held in Gaza, out of the 252 kidnapped on October 7. The number of hostages still held now stands at 121, of whom 37 are dead, according to the Israeli army.
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Orion Hernandez Radoux, 32 years old
This 32-year-old Franco-Mexican was attending the Nova music festival in southern Israel when Hamas fighters attacked. He was with his friend Shani Louk, a 22-year-old German-Israeli woman who later appeared in a social media video, lying face down, apparently unconscious and half-naked, in the back of a pickup truck in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army announced on May 17 that it had repatriated his body.
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Chanan Yablonka
Sports and music fan, Israeli Chanan Yablonka was also kidnapped during the Nova festival. Divorced and father of two children, according to his sister Avivit, he had decided at the last minute to go to the festival with four friends.
His sister Avivit Yablonka told AFP that he and his friends tried to escape by car. The bodies of his four friends, including that of former Israeli international footballer Lior Assouline, were found and identified near the vehicle.
On Tuesday, Avivit Yablonka told AFP “fearing bad news” about her brother after the announcement of the repatriation of several bodies of other hostages the previous week.
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Michel Nisenbaum
On the morning of October 7, Michel Nisenbaum, a 59-year-old Israeli-Brazilian resident of Sderot, a town on the edge of the Gaza Strip, went by car to pick up his granddaughter – whose father is a soldier – at the Reim military base. He hadn’t heard from him since. He was on the phone with family members when the line went dead. Subsequently, an Arabic speaking voice answered a call from one of his daughters.
Of Israeli and Brazilian nationality, Michel Nisenbaum was born in Niteroi, near Rio de Janeiro, before emigrating to Israel at the age of 12. He is divorced and the father of two married daughters.
