The Israeli army mentioned on Saturday that it had recovered the physique of an Israeli hostage who was kidnapped through the Hamas-led Oct. 7 assault, virtually six months after he was taken hostage.
The person, recognized as Elad Katzir, 47, was a farmer in Nir Oz, a kibbutz close to Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip that was one of many areas hardest hit within the assault on Oct. 7, through which 1,200 Israelis died and about 250 folks have been taken hostage, in accordance with the Israeli authorities. His physique was recovered by troops in Khan Younis, a metropolis in southern Gaza the place the Israeli military has been working since December, and returned to Israel in a single day, the army mentioned.
After the announcement of the restoration and return of Mr. Katzir’s physique, Mr. Katzir’s sister, Carmit, bitterly denounced the Israeli authorities in a social media submit for failing to safe her brother’s launch.
“He may have been saved if there had been a deal in time,” she wrote. “However our management are cowards, motivated by political issues, and thus it didn’t occur.
“Your story shouldn’t have ended like this,” she wrote to her brother. “I’m sorry we couldn’t prevent. I like you endlessly.”
Mr. Katzir was killed in mid-January, an Israeli army official informed a press briefing on Saturday, whereas being held in Gaza by a militant group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Round 8 p.m. on Friday evening, the official mentioned, Israeli forces arrived in southern Khan Younis, remoted the realm and excavated his physique from the place he was buried underground.
In an interview with The New York Instances in 2009, after Palestinian rocket assaults led to a lethal three-week Israeli offensive in opposition to Hamas in Gaza, Mr. Katzir mentioned that he felt a nagging unease in Nir Oz, the place he was born.
“I don’t really feel any victory,” Mr. Katzir mentioned on the time, when the preventing had ended with a shaky cease-fire. “I nonetheless don’t really feel protected.”
On Oct. 7, Mr. Katzir despatched voice messages to an area WhatsApp group supposed for emergencies: There have been terrorists within the kibbutz, he mentioned, and so they have been shifting from home to deal with. “We want assist as quickly as attainable.”. No such assist was forthcoming because the Israeli army struggled to regain management of cities and main junctions close to Gaza.
Islamic Jihad launched no less than two movies of Mr. Katzir throughout his captivity. Within the final, in early January, he mentioned he had been held for greater than 90 days and described listening to on the radio of the loss of life of an in depth buddy from Nir Oz.
The restoration of Mr. Katzir’s physique added one other tragic chapter to a grim saga for each the residents of Nir Ouncesand the Katzir household. On Oct. 7, over 1 / 4 of the greater than 400 residents of Nir Oz, have been both killed or kidnapped within the assault, amongst them Mr. Katzir’s father, Avraham, who was killed, and his mom, Hanna, who was taken hostage, in accordance with the Israeli army.
Hanna Katzir, 76, was launched in November as a part of a quick cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas, through which greater than 100 hostages have been returned. Her reappearance shocked a few of her relations, as a result of Palestinian Islamic Jihad had earlier claimed that she was useless.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has resisted more and more pressing pleas from President Biden and different world leaders to conform to a cease-fire to facilitate the return of the hostages, insisting that solely continued “army strain” on Hamas will drive the group to return to the desk.
His recalcitrance has infuriated the households of most of the hostages who, fearing that their family members could possibly be killed by their captors or by errant Israeli fireplace, have demanded extra speedy motion.
In a vigil within the coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv on Saturday evening, the households of a number of hostages households mentioned the Israeli authorities was working out of time to save lots of their family members from Mr. Katzir’s destiny. “Spare the opposite households the bitter information obtained by the Katzir household, and provides us the one joyful message we have now been eager for these previous six months,” mentioned Nissim Kalderon, whose brother Ofer was additionally kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Ounceson Oct 7.
“Make the choice and produce them dwelling,” he mentioned.
Palestinian militants nonetheless maintain about 100 dwelling hostages within the enclave, the Israeli authorities say, and greater than 30 others at the moment are presumed useless.
Over the previous a number of weeks, Israel and Hamas have resumed oblique negotiations over a attainable cease-fire and the discharge of no less than some hostages. In an announcement on Telegram on Saturday, Hamas mentioned {that a} delegation of its management would journey to Cairo on Sunday for additional negotiations.
On Friday, President Biden despatched messages to the leaders of Egypt and Qatar — who act as intermediaries between Hamas and Israel — urging them to extend strain on Hamas to make a deal. He has pressed Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to do the identical.
After Israeli drone strikes this week killed six international nationals and a Palestinian working for the charity group World Central Kitchen, the Biden administration threatened “coverage modifications” except Mr. Netanyahu took speedy steps to alleviate the starvation disaster in Gaza and to raised defend civilians and help employees.
Within the six months for the reason that Oct. 7 assault, greater than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, in accordance with the Gaza Well being Ministry, and lots of who stay alive are determined for help and meals as famine looms over Gaza’s inhabitants.
In response to Washington’s prodding, the Israeli authorities mentioned on Friday that it could permit the “short-term supply” of help by means of the port of Ashdod in Israel and the Erez crossing, a checkpoint between Israel and northern Gaza. Nevertheless it didn’t say when these new routes would open or how a lot help may go by means of them. COGAT, the Israeli company that supervises help deliveries into Gaza, didn’t reply to questions.
Israel additionally mentioned it could allow extra help from Jordan to go by means of the Kerem Shalom crossing within the south.
The Erez crossing has been closed since Oct. 7, and it was not instantly clear what infrastructure may should be put in place to facilitate Israeli safety checks on meals and provides there. Earlier than the struggle, the crossing was utilized by pedestrians, not for the transport of products. Transferring help by means of Erez into northern Gaza is prone to current logistical hurdles as a result of most help for the enclave has been saved in El Arish in Egypt, on Gaza’s southern border.
The Israeli army was additionally on excessive alert Saturday after Iranian leaders vowed retribution for the Israeli strike in Syria that killed a number of senior Iranian commanders earlier this week.
Nearly instantly after the assault, Iran’s leaders pledged to avenge the killings, and U.S. officers in Washington and the Center East mentioned they have been bracing for attainable Iranian retaliation.
On Saturday, the threats in opposition to Israel continued, as a second day of public funerals came about in Iran, within the hometowns of the seven members of the elite Quds Power killed within the Israeli assault on Iran’s embassy compound in Damascus, Syria.
The commander in chief of Iran’s armed forces, which incorporates the army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, mentioned throughout one of many funeral ceremonies on Saturday that Iran would reply to Israel and that it could “decide the time, place and methodology of the operation.” He added that the retaliation can be designed to inflict “most harm on the enemy.”
Israeli fight troopers anticipating to go on go away over the weekend have been ordered to stay at their stations, the Israeli army mentioned, and extra reserve items have been known as as much as reinforce Israel’s air protection system.
Isabel Kershner, Ronen Bergman and Farnaz Fassihi contributed reporting.
