The Israeli army says it has found near the al-Chifa hospital the body of a hostage kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7 attack in Israel.
The Israeli army announced Thursday that it had discovered, near the al-Chifa hospital in Gaza, the body of a hostage kidnapped by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas during the October 7 attack in Israel.
The body of this woman, kidnapped in the kibbutz of Beeri, “was extracted by Israeli army troops from a structure adjacent to al-Chifa hospital in the Gaza Strip and transferred to Israeli territory”said an army press release.
The victim is identified by the army as Yehudit Weiss.
“In the structure where Yehudit was located, military equipment, including Kalashnikov rifles and rocket launchers, was also found”adds the army.
This is the first time since the military offensive launched by the Israeli army against Hamas that one of the hostages kidnapped on October 7 has been found in the Gaza Strip.
Around 240 people were captured that day on Israeli territory during the Hamas attack which left 1,200 dead, mainly civilians, according to the authorities.
In retaliation, Israel declared a war for “annihilate” Hamas, relentlessly bombing the Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian Islamist movement took power in 2007. At least 11,500 people were killed, according to the Hamas government.
Earlier in the day, the army announced that “images relating to the hostages” had been found on computers seized from the al-Chifa hospital in Gaza, which had been stormed for two days.
Al-Chifa, the largest hospital in Gaza, is presented by Israel as a strategic and military center of Hamas, something denied by the Islamist movement which took power in the Gaza Strip in 2007.
Entering the hospital on Wednesday, the Israeli army says it is searched as part of an operation “targeted” And “complex”driving “in stages”while, according to the UN, around 2,300 people – patients, caregivers and displaced people – are still there.
An “immediate risk of famine”, warns the UN
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) on Thursday alerted the world to the “immediate risk of famine” in Gaza, where food and water are “almost non-existent”.
“With winter fast approaching, poor and overcrowded shelters, and a lack of clean water, civilians face an immediate risk of starvation.”declared in a press release the executive director of the UN agency based in Rome, Cindy McCain.