During this pivotal time of celebration in Israel, there is also a bittersweet element behind it as the bodies returned by Hamas are starting to be identified.
According to the BBC, Israel has currently identified four of the bodies of the slain hostages that were returned by Hamas. Two of them have been named by the IDF as Guy Illouz, 26, and Bipin Joshi, 23, who was a Nepalese citizen.
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The families of Yossi Sharabi, 53 and Israeli-South African citizen Daniel Peretz, 22, were also named among the fallen. The BBC also noted that four additional bodies have been collected by the Red Cross in Gaza and will be moved back into Israel.
This comes as Israel has reportedly blocked the Rafah border crossing to and from Egypt and Gaza along with a reduction of aid coming into the area. Israel took these measures after Hamas failed to return all 28 bodies of the deceased Israeli hostages.
The 20 alive remaining hostages were released to go home to Israel, including Evyatar David who was in captivity for 738 days, during which time he was starved and forced to dig his own grave by Hamas.
Continue to lift up the families of the deceased hostages in your prayers, and for the recovery of the freed hostages as the assimilate back into everyday society. Pray for God to continue to expose the evil doings by Hamas as they have now been caught publicly executing people in Gaza who they believe had ties to Israel.
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Abby Trivett is a writer and editor for Charisma Media and has a passion for sharing the gospel through the written word. She holds two degrees from Regent University, a B.A. in Communication with a concentration in Journalism and a Master of Arts in Journalism. She is the author of the upcoming book, The Power of Suddenly: Discover How God Can Change Everything in a Moment.
