The Israeli military said on Wednesday it had recovered another body of a hostage in the Gaza Strip.

An Arab Israeli, aged 53, was brought out after being found dead in a tunnel in the Rafah area of southern Gaza on Tuesday, according to a military spokesman, who said he was killed in captivity.

Finds connected to the man’s 22-year-old son, who had also been kidnapped, raise “serious concern” for his life, too, the spokesman said.

Israel had previously assumed that the two were still alive.

Both were abducted and taken to the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, when Hamas forces attacked Israel from Gaza. As well as killing around 1,200 people, the Palestinian Islamist group kidnapped around 250 people.

Two other children of the 53-year-old were also kidnapped on that day.

The teenagers were released in November 2023 as part of an agreement between Hamas and Israel. All four were working in a kibbutz near the border with the Gaza Strip when the attack occurred. The family belongs to a Bedouin community.

The Bedouins belong to the Arab minority in Israel, and their number is estimated at around 250,000 nationwide. Many of them serve in the Israeli army.

An army spokesman stressed that dozens of the hostages still being held in the Gaza Strip are still alive.

Hamas authorities: 51 killed in Gaza in past day

At least 51 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip within the past 24 hours, the Hamas-controlled health authority reported on Wednesday.

The authority also stated that 78 people were injured over the past day.

At the same time, the Israeli army said three of its soldiers had been killed in fighting in the northern Gaza Strip.

According to military sources, the soldiers died in the same incident. However, the army did not initially provide further details.

Much of the Gaza Strip has since been rendered uninhabitable amid the fighting and more than 45,900 people have been killed according to Palestinian estimates.

Three reported killed in West Bank, including children

Two children were among three Palestinians killed in an Israeli drone attack in the West Bank, Palestinian media reported on Wednesday.

The Israeli military only said that a “terrorist cell” near the town of Tamun had been attacked. A military spokesman separately said that reports of children killed were being investigated.

The Palestinian news agency WAFA reported the dead were children aged 9 and 10, as well as a 23-year-old.

The Palestinian Foreign Affairs Ministry in Ramallah accused Israel of committing a “heinous crime.”

The already tense situation in the West Bank has worsened significantly since the Hamas massacre in Israel and the subsequent Gaza war.



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