Israeli hostages Almog Sarusi (top left), Alex Lubnov, Carmel Gat, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi and Hersh Goldberg-Polin. AFP

Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in southern Gaza where they were apparently killed not long before Israeli troops reached them, the military said on Sunday.

"According to our initial estimation, they were brutally murdered by Hamas fighters a short time before we reached them," military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters in a briefing.

Days earlier, Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a member of the Bedouin community in southern Israel, was rescued about a kilometre away, the military said.

The Israeli military said the bodies of Carmel Gat, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino had been brought to Israel.

US President Joe Biden, who has closely followed the fate of the hostages seized on Oct. 7, said the six included Israeli American Goldberg-Polin.

"I am devastated and outraged," Biden said in a statement issued by the White House.

After Alkadi was located, Israeli troops were told to be more cautious because of the likelihood that there might be other hostages in the area, but there had been no precise information on the location of the hostages, Hagari said.

The Palestinian group Hamas did not immediately comment on the accusations.

At least 40,691 Palestinians have been killed and 94,060 injured in Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, the enclave's health ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

Reuters