Israeli forces have recovered the bodies of three hostages from Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) say.

The bodies were those of Shani Louk, Amit Buskila, and Itzhak Gelerenter, it said. The IDF said they had been murdered on 7 October and their remains taken back to Gaza.

Local media reported that the bodies were found in a Hamas tunnel.

About 1,200 people were killed in an unprecedented attack when Hamas gunmen burst into Israel. They took 252 others back to Gaza as hostages.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the news “heart-breaking”.

“We will return all of our hostages, the living and the deceased alike,” he said.

In a statement, the IDF said the bodies had been recovered in an operation overnight. It said it had acted on intelligence gleaned from “interrogations of terrorists” who had been detained in Gaza.

It said the three victims had been killed at an intersection near the site of the Nova festival massacre in southern Israel, before their bodies were taken to Gaza.

More than 360 people were killed at the festival. About 125 hostages remain unaccounted for, with the others having been released or rescued.