Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's military advisor, Roman Gofman, has been in Moscow for talks about issues pertaining to the release of captives in the Gaza Strip, according to the prime minister's office.
The prime minister's office claims that during a phone conversation with Oxana and Grigory Lobanov, the parents of Alexander Lobanov, who was killed while being held captive by Hamas, Netanyahu made this statement.
"During the conversation, it was revealed that the Prime Minister's Military Secretary, Maj.-Gen. Roman Gofman returned this morning from a visit to Moscow, the goal of which was to advance the hostages deal and during which he discussed Alexander Lobanov and the other hostages," it said, Tass reported.
The Israeli prime minister offered his condolences to Lobanov’s parents "and apologized to the family that the State of Israel did not succeed in returning Alexander and the other five hostages alive.”
Six captives have died in the Gaza Strip, according to a statement made by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) early on Sunday. Among them was Lovanov, a dual citizen of Israel and Russia. The family of Lobanov and the other captive families received condolences from Russian Ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov, who also emphasised that Russian diplomats are still working to secure the release of another Russian prisoner, Alexander Trufanov, from captivity in Gaza.
The bodies of the six hostages were discovered late on August 31 in an underground tunnel close to the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, according to IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari. He stated that it seemed the six had been killed as soon as Israeli forces arrived at the scene. He claimed that fighting in the tunnel had resulted in the discovery of the remains.
He claimed that the remains had been discovered during combat in a tunnel one km from another where a few days earlier an Israeli hostage had been rescued. Israeli forces in the region were told to exercise caution when he was freed, but Hagari claimed that they were unaware that there might be more hostages nearby.