The Israeli navy mentioned on Saturday that it had recovered the physique of an Israeli hostage who was kidnapped in the course of the Hamas-led Oct. 7 assault, nearly 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 individuals have been taken hostage, based on 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 navy 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 might have been saved if there had been a deal in time,” she wrote. “However our management are cowards, motivated by political concerns, 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 ceaselessly.”
Mr. Katzir was killed in mid-January, an Israeli navy official instructed 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 world 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 secure.”
On Oct. 7, Mr. Katzir despatched voice messages to a neighborhood WhatsApp group meant for emergencies: There have been terrorists within the kibbutz, he mentioned, they usually have been transferring from home to accommodate. “We’d like assist as quickly as potential.”. No such assist was forthcoming because the Israeli navy struggled to regain management of cities and main junctions close to Gaza.
Islamic Jihad launched a minimum of 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 demise 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 Ozand 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, based on the Israeli navy.
Hanna Katzir, 76, was launched in November as a part of a short cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas, through which greater than 100 hostages have been returned. Her reappearance surprised a few of her members of the family, 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 “navy strain” on Hamas will power 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 fast 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 now we have been eager for these previous six months,” mentioned Nissim Kalderon, whose brother Ofer was additionally kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Ozon 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 potential cease-fire and the discharge of a minimum of some hostages. In a press release 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 overseas nationals and a Palestinian working for the charity group World Central Kitchen, the Biden administration threatened “coverage modifications” except Mr. Netanyahu took fast steps to alleviate the starvation disaster in Gaza and to raised shield civilians and assist staff.
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, based on the Gaza Well being Ministry, and plenty of who stay alive are determined for assist and meals as famine looms over Gaza’s inhabitants.
In response to Washington’s prodding, the Israeli authorities mentioned on Friday that it might permit the “short-term supply” of assist via the port of Ashdod in Israel and the Erez crossing, a checkpoint between Israel and northern Gaza. However it didn’t say when these new routes would open or how a lot assist might go via them. COGAT, the Israeli company that supervises assist deliveries into Gaza, didn’t reply to questions.
Israel additionally mentioned it might allow extra assist from Jordan to go via 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 have to be put in place to facilitate Israeli safety checks on meals and provides there. Earlier than the conflict, the crossing was utilized by pedestrians, not for the transport of products. Shifting assist via Erez into northern Gaza is prone to current logistical hurdles as a result of most assist for the enclave has been saved in El Arish in Egypt, on Gaza’s southern border.
The Israeli navy 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.
Virtually 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 potential Iranian retaliation.
On Saturday, the threats in opposition to Israel continued, as a second day of public funerals befell 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 navy and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, mentioned throughout one of many funeral ceremonies on Saturday that Iran would reply to Israel and that it might “decide the time, place and technique 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 depart over the weekend have been ordered to stay at their stations, the Israeli navy mentioned, and extra reserve models have been referred to as as much as reinforce Israel’s air protection system.
Isabel Kershner, Ronen Bergman and Farnaz Fassihi contributed reporting.