Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Friday that Israel had recovered the body of hostage Ilan Weiss from the Gaza Strip.
He said that the remains of another hostage, whose identity had not yet been authorized to publish, have also been recovered. These remains underwent an forensic identification, he said.
Weiss, 55, who would have been missing since the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, had been dead for a long time.
He was assassinated and removed from his home to Kibbutz Be’eri, the FDI said on Friday in a statement. His wife, Shiri Weiss, and his daughter Noga Weiss were also kidnapped and later returned as part of a hostage liberation agreement in November 2023, he added.
The removal forum and missing families, which organized large-scale demonstrations requiring a cease-fire to return the hostages, cried the two losses and called on the Israeli government to “enter negotiations and stay at the table until each last hostage comes home”.
“Time is exhausted for the people of Israel who carries this burden,” he said in a statement.
‘Towards the disaster’
The Israeli army had previously suspended noon breaks in the fighting in the city of Gaza, which had allowed the delivery of humanitarian aid, saying that the city was now a “dangerous combat zone”.
Last week, Netanyahu authorized the operation to take over the city, despite the warnings of aid groups and world officials.
UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, said on Friday that the intensification of operations in Gaza City would put “around 1 million people risky to be forced again by the displaced”.
“With the famine already confirmed in the region, any new escalation would deepen the sufferings and would push more people to the disaster,” he posted on X.
But Israel insisted and gave no sign that he will accept a cease-fire proposal that Hamas said he approved in recent weeks.
The Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz promised to open the “gates of hell” to the city of Gaza until Hamas accepts the conditions of Israel to end the war, including the release of all hostages and the complete disarmament of the militant group.
Israel had already faced international outrage this week after hitting Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, killing 22 people, including five journalists.
The FDI said that Hamas had positioned a camera on the roof, without providing evidence, and did not explain why the installation was struck several times.
A Analysis of NBC news revealed that at least four Israeli ammunition was fired on the medical complex.
Israel called for some 60,000 reservists for the enlarged operation.
