Israeli military says body of Bedouin hostage recovered from Gaza

Israel’s military says its forces have found the body of a Bedouin Arab captured by Hamas in Gaza, as well as evidence that another person is dead.

The body of Yousef Zyadna, 53, was found in a subway south of Rafah on Tuesday.

The army also made what the military described as “findings … that cause great concern” in the life of his son, Hamza, 22, who was also kidnapped by Hamas bandits on 7 October 2023 in southern Israel.

Hamza’s two brothers, Aisha and Bilal, were captured together at the kibbutz farm that day. But he was among 105 hostages who were released a week later in November 2023.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed “deep sorrow and the sad news that Zyadna’s family has received today”.

The news came shortly after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters that US, Qatari and Egyptian negotiators were “very close” to establishing a new non-combat and liberation agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Meanwhile, at least 14 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes across Gaza on Wednesday, according to medics and first responders.

The Israeli military also said it intercepted a rocket fired south of Gaza.

Yousef Zyadna lived in a Bedouin village in the south of the Negev desert in Israel.

On the morning of October 7, 2023, he went to work on a dairy farm in Kibbutz Holit, where he joined his three children for a picnic.

He was among 251 Israelis and foreigners who were captured when hundreds of Hamas-led terrorists attacked the nearby Israel-Gaza fence, killing an estimated 1,200 people.

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the attack. More than 45,930 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the region’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Israel says 95 of the hostages are still in Gaza, of whom 34 are presumed dead, as well as four other Israeli children who were abducted before the war began, two of whom have died.

The Israeli military said that Yousef Zyadna was “killed in captivity” and that his family was notified following a procedure established by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine and the Israeli police.

His spokesman Lt Col Nadav Shoshani told reporters that special forces found his body next to the bodies of several armed guards, and it was not clear when and where he died.

“We are currently investigating the cause of her death and we are also investigating what we have found about her son,” he said, according to Reuters.

“These findings are life-threatening and they are still being evaluated at this time,” he added, without giving further details.

Earlier, Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote on X that the bodies of Yousef and Hamza had been found.

Prime Minister Netanyahu said: “We hope and work for the four members to return safely [Zyadna] a family captured by Hamas.”

“We brought back children Bilal and Aisha in November 2023 and wanted to bring back Yousef and Hamza. I will send my condolences to the family.”

He also promised that the security forces in Israel “will continue to work to return those who captured us, alive and dead”.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents some of the families of the hostages, expressed regret that the potential deal and release discussed in Doha “came too late for Yousef”.

“Every day in prison they risk the premature death of a captive who can live for 15 months, and threaten to return the dead to be buried,” he said.

On Sunday, Yousef Zyadna’s name appeared on a list of 34 hostages that a senior Hamas official said the group wants to release in the first phase of a ceasefire agreement.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office denied that Hamas had provided Israel with such a list, saying it was “provided from Israel to mediators from July 2024”. It added that Israel had not received confirmation as to whether those on the list were alive or dead.

Hamas’s decision to share the list with the media was seen as an attempt to increase pressure on the Israeli government as talks resumed in Doha.

On Wednesday, Antony Blinken said a potential deal was close and he hoped to “break it down” before President Donald Trump takes office on January 20.

“I believe that when we get this agreement, and we will get it, it will be based on the plan that the President has. [Joe] Biden represented the world, in the month of May,” added the US secretary.

Trump’s Middle East envoy, Stephen Witkoff, also told a press conference on Tuesday that “a lot of progress” has been made in the talks and he plans to join them.

Trump meanwhile repeated his threat that “all hell will break out in the Middle East” if Hamas did not release all the hostages in the next 12 days.

Hamas leader Osama Hamdan responded by saying: “I think the US president should speak in a fair and diplomatic manner.”

The two parties accuse each other of hindering the progress of the agreement by making unreasonable demands.

Hamas wants Israel to agree to a permanent ceasefire and complete withdrawal from Gaza. Israel has said it will not end the war until Hamas forces and authorities are eliminated and all those captured are brought home.