The Israeli army says the body of the Bedouins removed from Gaza

Israel’s military says its troops have found the body of an Arab Bedouin hostage held by Hamas in Gaza, as well as evidence suggesting another may be dead.

The body of 53-year-old Yousef Zyadna was pulled from an underground tunnel south of Rafah on Tuesday.

The soldiers also made “findings … that raise serious concerns” about his son Hamza, 22, who was kidnapped by Hamas in an October 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel.

Hamza’s two siblings, Aisha and Bilal, were apprehended with them that day at a kibbutz farm. But they were among 105 hostages released during a week-long ceasefire in November 2023.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “expressed his deep sorrow for the sad news the Zyadna family received today.”

U.S., Qatari and Egyptian mediators were “very close” to brokering a new cease-fire and hostage-release deal between Israel and Hamas, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said before he told reporters.

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

The Israeli army also says it intercepted a rocket fired from southern Gaza.

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

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

They were among the 251 Israelis and foreigners taken hostage when hundreds of Hamas-directed weapons tore through the Israel-Gaza perimeter fence and killed around 1,200 others.

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the attack. Since then, more than 45,930 people have died in Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-run Health Ministry.

Israel says that 95 of the wounded are still in Gaza, 34 of whom are presumed dead, as well as four other Israelis kidnapped before the war, two of whom are dead.

The Israeli army said Yousef Zyadna was “killed in captivity” and his family was notified after an identification procedure by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine and the Israeli police.

Spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told reporters that special forces found his body near the bodies of several armed guards, and it was unclear how or when he died.

“We are currently investigating the circumstances of his death and we are also investigating the findings about his son,” he said, according to the Reuters news agency.

“These findings raise concerns for his life and are still being analyzed at this time,” he added, without elaborating.

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

Prime Minister Netanyahu said: “We hoped and worked for the safe return of the four members of the (Zyadna) family kidnapped by Hamas.”

“We brought children Bilal and Aisha back in November 2023 and we wanted to bring Yousef and Hamza too. My condolences to the family.”

He also promised that Israeli security forces “will continue to make every effort to return all our hostages, living and dead.”

The Forum of Hostages and Disappeared Families, which represents the families of some of the hostages, regretted that the ceasefire and hostage release deal being discussed in Doha “comes too late for Yousef”.

“Guilts who have managed to survive in captivity for 15 months every day are in immediate danger of death, and are threatened with the possibility of returning to bury the dead,” he said in a statement.

On Sunday, Yousef Zyadna’s name appeared on a list of 34 hostages, and a senior Hamas official said the group was ready to be released in the first phase of a ceasefire deal.

The Israeli prime minister’s office denied that Hamas had provided Israel with the list, saying it “was originally passed from Israel to mediators in July 2024.” He also said that Israel had not received confirmation that 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 public pressure on the Israeli government as negotiations resumed in Doha.

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

“I believe that when we get that agreement, and we will get it, it will be based on the plan that President (Joe) Biden presented to the world in May,” added the US Secretary of State.

Trump’s Middle East envoy, Stephen Witkoff, also said at a news conference on Tuesday that “a lot of progress” had been made in the talks and that he planned to join them.

Meanwhile, Trump repeated his threat that “all hell will break loose in the Middle East” if Hamas does not release all hostages within the next 12 days.

Hamas official Osama Hamdan responded by saying, “I think the US president needs to make more disciplined and diplomatic statements.”

Both sides have accused each other of obstructing progress towards an agreement by making unreasonable demands.

Hamas wants Israel to agree to a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal from Gaza. Israel says it will not end the war until Hamas’s military and government capabilities are dismantled and all hostages are brought home.