Roughly 100 Israeli hostages have been taken into Gaza when Hamas militants launched an assault on southern Israel on seventh October 2023.
Israeli troopers have recovered the physique of 53-year-old Yosef AlZayadni in an underground tunnel in southern Gaza and have been figuring out if one other set of stays discovered belonged to his son, the Israeli army stated on Wednesday.
AlZayadni and his son, Hamzah AlZayadni, have been captured on the 7 October by Hamas militants in a kibbutz in southern Israel in an assault that killed 1,200 folks. He was a dairy farmer with a complete of 19 kids, stated the Hostages Households Discussion board, a bunch representing the relations of these captured.
Two of his different kids, Bilal and Aisha, have been launched in a weeklong ceasefire deal in November 2023 together with round 100 different hostages.
Of the roughly 100 hostages who stay in Gaza, one third are stated to be useless, some killed throughout Hamas’ preliminary assault and others have been killed or have died in captivity. Israel has rescued eight hostages and has recovered the our bodies of dozens.
The hostages vary in age from 1 to 86, and are believed to be scattered all through the Gaza Strip. They’ve been held in residences or in Hamas’ net of underground tunnels, that are cramped, damp and stifling, in keeping with testimony from freed hostages.
The army stated it discovered proof within the tunnel that raised “critical considerations” for the lifetime of Hamzah AlZayadni, 23, suggesting he might have died in captivity.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed sorrow on the information of AlZayadni’s loss of life, and stated in an announcement he had “hoped and labored to carry again the 4 family members from Hamas captivity.”
The AlZayadni household are members of the Bedouin group, a Palestinian minority who’ve Israeli citizenship. Eight members of Israel’s Bedouin minority have been kidnapped within the October 2023 assaults.
“We anticipated to carry them again alive,” stated Talal Alkernawi, mayor of town of Rahat the place the lads have been from. “As an alternative of returning them alive to their households, to lift their kids, we obtain them useless.”
The return of the remaining hostages is a key factor of a possible ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. The households of the hostages have put immense stress on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to barter a pause in hostilities in order that their family members may return house.
Ceasefire negotiations are reportedly at present underway, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying Wednesday {that a} ceasefire and a hostage settlement is “very shut”. The politician stated he hopes the settlement can be reached earlier than US President-Elect Donald Trump takes over later this month.
The Hostages Households Discussion board stated the ceasefire deal being negotiated “comes far too late for Yosef — who was taken alive and will have returned the identical means.”
Yosef AlZayadni’s identify appeared on an inventory of 34 hostages who would have been slated for launch ought to a hostage settlement deal have held, a Hamas official shared earlier this week. Israel has argued that this checklist had been submitted to mediators final July.
