The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced Thursday that the body of Youssef Ziyadne, 53, a Bedouin Israeli Arab, had been recovered in a tunnel in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip.
As the Times of Israel noted, Ziyadne was abducted on October 7, together with his son, Hamza Ziyadne, 22.
In a statement, the IDF said:
Yesterday (Tuesday), the IDF and ISA located and recovered the body of the hostage Youssef Ziyadne from an underground tunnel in the area of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, and returned his body to Israel.
Youssef Ziyadne was abducted on October 7th and was killed in captivity.
In addition, as part of the operation, findings were located related to Youssef’s son, Hamza Ziyadne, who was also abducted on October 7th, which raise serious concerns for his life.
Following an identification procedure carried out by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine and the Israel Police, the IDF Manpower Directorate’s Hostage team, which is responsible for accompanying the families of the hostages, notified their family.
The IDF and ISA send their heartfelt condolences to the families.
The IDF and ISA are continuing to operate in order to bring home all the hostages as soon as possible.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer told reporters in a briefing that there are 99 hostages, which includes 4 hostages that were abducted prior to October 7, 2023. Of those, 36 have been killed, including 34 of the October 7 abductees. Of the 95 who were taken hostage on October 7, 82 are male and 13 are female. Two are children under the age of five. All four of the prior hostages are male. The remaining hostages are mostly Israel but represent a variety of nationalities.
Hamas abducted 251 hostages in total on October 7. Roughly 100, mostly elderly women and children, were returned to Israel under a truce in November 2023, which Hamas later broke.
Mencer stressed that Israel’s priority in indirect negotiations with Hamas toward a hostage deal is recovering the living hostages, even though it also wished to recover bodies as well.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
