Israeli soldiers recovered the body of a 53-year-old hostage in an underground tunnel in southern Gaza, the military said overnight, and the army was determining if another set of remains belongs to the man’s son.
Yosef and his son Hamzah Al Zayadni were thought to still be alive before the new announcement, and news about their fate could ramp up pressure on Israel to move forward with a deal.
The military said it found evidence in the tunnel that raised “serious concerns” for the life of Hamzah Al Zayadni, 23, suggesting he may have died in captivity.
Yosef Al Zayadni and three of his kids were among 250 hostages taken captive after Hamas-led militants stormed out of Gaza into southern Israel, killing 1200 people.
Al Zayadni, who had 19 children, worked at the dairy farm at southern Israel’s Kibbutz Holit for 17 years, said the Hostages Families Forum, a group representing the relatives of captives. Al Zayadni’s teenage children, Bilal and Aisha, were released along with most of the hostages in a weeklong ceasefire deal in November 2023.
The family are members of the Bedouin community, part of Israel’s Palestinian minority who have Israeli citizenship. The traditionally nomadic community is particularly impoverished in Israel and has suffered from neglect and marginalisation.
Palestinians make up some 20 per cent of Israel’s 10 million population, and millions more live in Gaza and under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank.
Eight members of Israel’s Bedouin minority were abducted in the October 2023 attacks.
Yosef Al Zayadni appeared on a list of 34 hostages shared by a Hamas official with The Associated Press earlier this week who the militant group said were slated for release. Israel said this was a list it had submitted to mediators last July, and that it has received nothing from Hamas.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that a ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas is “very close” and he hopes “we can get it over the line” before handing over US diplomacy to President-elect Donald Trump’s administration later this month.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed sorrow at the news of Al Zayadni’s death, and said in a statement he had “hoped and worked to bring back the four members of the family from Hamas captivity.” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz earlier said the bodies of both Yosef and Hamzah Al Zayadni had been recovered, but the military said the identity of some remains were not yet determined.
The Hostages Families Forum said the ceasefire deal being negotiated “comes far too late for Yosef – who was taken alive and should have returned the same way.”
“Every day in captivity poses an immediate mortal danger to the hostages,” the group said in a statement.
Many of the families fear their loved ones’ fate is at risk as long as the war in Gaza rages on. Israeli forces are pressing their air and ground war against Hamas, and on Wednesday, Palestinian medics said Israeli airstrikes killed at least five people in the Gaza Strip, including two infants and a woman.
An Associated Press journalist saw four of the bodies in the morgue at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, among them a four-month-old boy. Israel’s military says it only targets militants, accusing them of hiding among civilians.
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has since killed over 45,800 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. It does not say how many were fighters, but says women and children make up over half the fatalities. The military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Civilians flee in Rafah as Israel pushes ahead with its offensive
Israel has destroyed vast areas of the impoverished territory and displaced some 90 per cent of its population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.
The fighting has also spilled over into the broader Middle East, including a war between Israel and Hezbollah now contained by a fragile ceasefire, and direct conflict between Israel and Iran.
Iran-backed rebels in Yemen have targeted shipping in the Red Sea for more than a year and recently ramped up missile attacks on Israel, saying they seek to force an end to the war in Gaza. And on Wednesday, the US military said it carried out a wave of strikes against underground arms facilities of the Houthi rebels.