Israeli hostage’s body found in Gaza, possibly alongside his son’s remains, army says

JERUSALEM — Israeli soldiers recovered the body of a 53-year-old hostage in an underground tunnel in southern Gaza, the military said Wednesday, and the army was determining if another set of remains belongs to the man’s son.

The discovery of Yosef AlZayadni’s body comes as Israel and Hamas terrorists are considering a ceasefire deal that would free the remaining hostages in Gaza and could halt the fighting. Israel has declared that about a third of the remaining 100 hostages have died, but believes as many as half could be dead.

Yosef and his son Hamzah AlZayadni were thought to still be alive before Wednesday’s announcement.

The military said it found evidence in the tunnel that raised “serious concerns” for the life of Hamzah AlZayadni, 23, suggesting he may have died in captivity. Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesperson, said the circumstances behind Yosef AlZayadni’s death were being investigated.

AlZayadni and three of his children were among 250 hostages taken captive after Hamas-led terrorists stormed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people.

AlZayadni had a total of 19 children and had worked for 17 years at the dairy farm of a kibbutz that was among the communities attacked, said the Hostages Families Forum, a group representing the relatives of captives. AlZayadni’s teenage children, Bilal and Aisha, were released along with about 100 hostages in a weeklong ceasefire deal in November 2023.

The bodies of around three dozen hostages have been recovered in Gaza and eight hostages have been rescued by the army.

Yosef AlZayadni appeared on a list of 34 hostages shared by a Hamas official with The Associated Press earlier this week who the terrorist group said were slated for release. Israel said this was a list it had submitted to mediators last July, and that it has received nothing from Hamas.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that a ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas is “very close” and he hopes “we can get it over the line” before handing over U.S. diplomacy to President-elect Donald Trump’s administration later this month.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed sorrow at the news of AlZayadni’s death, and said in a statement he had “hoped and worked to bring back the four members of the family from Hamas captivity.” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz earlier said the bodies of both Yosef and Hamzah AlZayadni had been recovered, but the military said the identity of some remains were not yet determined.

The AlZayadni family are members of the Bedouin community, part of Israel’s Palestinian minority who have Israeli citizenship. Palestinians make up some 20 percent of Israel’s 10 million population, and millions more live in Gaza and under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank.

Eight members of Israel’s Bedouin minority were abducted in the October 2023 attacks.

“We expected to bring them back alive,” said Talal Alkernawi, mayor of the city of Rahat, where the men were from. “Instead of returning them alive to their families, to raise their children, we receive them dead.”

The war has killed more than 45,800 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. It does not say how many were fighters. The Israeli military says it has killed more than 17,000 terrorists.

The fighting has also spilled over into the broader Middle East, including a war between Israel and Hezbollah now contained by a fragile ceasefire, and direct conflict between Israel and Iran.

Iran-backed terrorists in Yemen have targeted shipping in the Red Sea for more than a year and recently ramped up missile attacks on Israel, saying they seek to force an end to the war in Gaza. And on Wednesday, the U.S. military said it carried out a wave of strikes against underground arms facilities of the Houthi terrorists.