Israeli soldiers recovered the body of an Islamic Jihad hostage in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, three months after the captors demanded his release in a video released by the Israeli military on Saturday.
He is Elad Katsir, a 47-year-old farmer Kibbutz Nir Oz. He was one of 253 people abducted and taken to Gaza on October 7 by Palestinian militants led by Hamas.
According to a military statement, citing detailed information from the secret services, Katsir was killed by Islamic Jihad.
In a video released by Islamic Jihad on January 8, Katzir said: “I came to the point of dying more than once. It's a miracle I'm still alive… I want to tell my family I love them so much and miss them so much.
Katzeer's father, Avraham, was among the roughly 1,200 killed in Israel on Oct. 7, according to official data, and his mother, Hanna, was taken hostage and released in November as part of a cease-fire deal with the dominant Islamist movement, Hamas. In the Gaza Strip.
Qatari and Egyptian mediators have so far tried unsuccessfully to broker a new ceasefire that would allow the release of some of the remaining 129 hostages. According to Gaza health officials, Hamas wants any deal to end the war, which has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians. But Israel intends to continue fighting until Hamas is defeated.
Based on multiple sources, Israel announced that at least 35 hostages held in Gaza had been killed. Palestinian Islamist groups claim some were killed in the Israeli attack. Israel claims that in some cases, hostages whose bodies were recovered showed signs of execution, although it confirmed that this had happened in some cases.