The Israeli army said on Wednesday it had recovered another hostage’s body in the Gaza Strip.
An Arab Israeli, 53 years old, was brought out on Tuesday after he was found dead in a tunnel in the Rafah area of southern Gaza, according to a military spokesman, who said he had been killed in captivity.
Finds linked to the man’s 22-year-old son, who was also abducted, raise “serious concerns” for his life, the spokesman said.
Israel previously assumed the two were still alive.
Both were kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, when Hamas forces attacked Israel from Gaza. The Palestinian Islamist group not only killed about 1,200 people, but also kidnapped about 250 people.
Two other children of the 53-year-old were also kidnapped on that day.
The teenagers were released in November 2023 as part of a deal between Hamas and Israel. All four were working in a kibbutz near the border with the Gaza Strip when the attack took place. The family belongs to a Bedouin community.
The Bedouins belong to Israel’s Arab minority and their number is estimated at around 250,000 nationwide. Many of them serve in the Israeli army.
An army spokesman stressed that dozens of hostages still held in the Gaza Strip are still alive.
Three people have reportedly been killed in the West Bank, including children
Two children were among the three Palestinians killed in an Israeli drone strike in the West Bank, Palestinian media reported on Wednesday.
The Israeli military said only that a “terrorist cell” near the city of Tamun had been attacked. A military spokesman said separately that reports of children being murdered were being investigated.
Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that the dead were children aged 9 and 10, as well as a 23-year-old.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry in Ramallah accused Israel of committing a “heinous crime.”
The already tense situation in the West Bank has deteriorated significantly since the Hamas massacre in Israel and the subsequent Gaza war.
