Israeli special forces recover bodies of hostages held in Gaza Strip

Israel said on Saturday its special forces had recovered the body of a hostage killed while being held in Gaza, and Hamas, the Palestinian enclave’s main Islamist movement, said it would take part in a new round of ceasefire talks in Cairo.

Nearly six months into the war, Israel faces protests at home demanding a deal to release Hamas’ dwindling number of hostages from cross-border violence on October 7, 2023. Meanwhile, Western countries have expressed outrage at the unacceptably high death toll of Palestinian civilians and the ensuing humanitarian crisis.

The military said commandos exhumed the body of 47-year-old Israeli farmer Elad Katzir overnight south of Khan Younis.

Citing intelligence information, the statement said he had been killed by kidnappers from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group and buried there in mid-January, but declined to elaborate on the intelligence information.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas ally Islamic Jihad.

According to official statistics, Qazir was one of 253 people dragged into Gaza by Hamas-led gunmen. Officially, the gunmen killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel, and the offensive has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, according to medics in the enclave.

His father Avraham was killed in their kibbutz Nir Oz and his mother Hanna was also held hostage but was released under a truce in November 2023.

Qatari and Egyptian mediators have been working on another deal that could see some of the 129 remaining hostages repatriated during Gaza’s long ceasefire.

Gaza’s health ministry on Saturday reported one of the lowest daily death tolls in six months, saying 46 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli attacks in the past 24 hours.

The Gaza-based health ministry did not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants in its report, but local health officials said most of the deaths were civilians. Israel says at least a third are fighters.

Hamas said on Saturday that its militants targeted three Israeli tanks in Khan Younis with missiles, causing casualties.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment but said earlier that troops were engaging gunmen in the area.

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The World Health Organization (WHO) said its team had successfully reached Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City, where a two-week raid by Israeli special forces on suspected militants left behind a wasteland of destroyed buildings.

The team saw at least five bodies in the complex, most of which were badly damaged.

“A return to even minimal functionality in the short term seems implausible,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

Shifa Hospital was the largest hospital in the pre-war Gaza Strip and one of the few partially operating medical facilities in the northern part of the enclave before the raid.

U.S. President Joe Biden, outraged by an Israeli airstrike that killed aid workers in Gaza, urged Israel on Thursday to “immediately cease fire” and step up humanitarian relief measures.

Israel approved the reopening of the Erez crossing into northern Gaza and the temporary use of its Ashdod port after criticism from the United States, with United Nations aid coordinator Jamie McGoldrick welcoming the measures on Saturday.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said N12 Meet the media On Saturday, he will travel to Washington, where he will meet with U.S. officials next week.

The Biden administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether senior officials would meet with Lapid.

Hamas said it would send a delegation to Cairo on Sunday for a new round of mediation talks. An Israeli official said Israel had not yet decided whether to participate, fearing the event would be “more political showmanship than real progress.”

Hamas wants any deal that ends the war and withdraws Israeli troops. Israel says it will oust Hamas, which it has vowed to destroy, after a ceasefire.

A rally is set to take place in Jerusalem on Sunday calling on leaders to secure the release of hostages, six months since the October 7, 2023 attack, and anti-government protesters in Tel Aviv called for elections on Saturday.

In a Jan. 8 video posted online by Islamic Jihad, Qazir said: “I have been close to death more than once. It is a miracle that I am still alive… I want to tell my family that I love them very much and I miss them very much. Like them.”

According to various sources, Israel announced the death of at least 35 hostages in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian factions said some people were killed in Israeli attacks. Israel confirmed this in several cases but said in other cases the bodies of hostages found showed signs of execution.