Wednesday briefing: What next for peace in Gaza after six Israeli hostages’ bodies are recovered

In today's newsletter: Following the return of six killed Israeli civilians, Benjamin Netantahu is facing calls from inside and outside the country to find a way to stop the conflict

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Good morning. There were 115 Israeli hostages, dead and alive, left in Gaza; now there are 109. Yesterday, the Israel Defense Forces said that it had recovered the bodies of six civilians taken by Hamas on 7 October last year - Yagev Buchshtab, Alexander Dancyg, Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell and Chaim Peri - from tunnels under the city of Khan Younis. While the families of all six had already announced that their loved ones were believed dead, that physical confirmation was devastating all the same.

Meanwhile, at least 12 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school yesterday, Gaza's civil defence agency said, adding that the building was being used to house displaced people. Israel claimed that it was a command and control centre for Hamas. The count maintained by Gaza's health authorities of dead Palestinians stands at more than 40,000.

Autumn budget | Rachel Reeves is planning to raise taxes, cut spending and get tough on benefits in October's budget, amid Treasury alarm over the state of the public finances. Changes could include rises in inheritance tax and capital gains tax, while Reeves may also reject pressure to remove the two-child benefit cap.

US politics | Amid chants of Yes, she can!", Barack Obama gave the closing speech on the second night of the Democratic national convention and said: We are ready for a President Kamala Harris." He was introduced by his wife Michelle, who said that Harris had sparked hope and alleviated a palpable sense of dread about the future".

Italy | Six missing people are now presumed dead after a yacht sank off the coast of Sicily. They are tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his teenage daughter Hannah; Morgan Stanley International chair Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy; and lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda. A body recovered on Monday was confirmed as that of the vessel's chef, Recaldo Thomas.

Health | Scotland's drug deaths remain the worst in Europe, as ministers pledged to intensify efforts to deal with the problem after a hugely concerning" 12% increase in fatalities last year.

Spain | The world's oldest known person, Spain's Maria Branyas Morera, who was born in 1907 and lived through two pandemics and two world wars, has died in her home in north-eastern Spain at the age of 117. Branyas got Covid-19 aged 113 in 2020 but made a full recovery and was said to be completely lucid".