{"id":25879,"date":"2024-04-06T11:13:01","date_gmt":"2024-04-06T15:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/israel-says-it-recovered-body-of-elad-katzir-an-oct-7-hostage\/06\/04\/2024\/"},"modified":"2024-04-06T11:13:01","modified_gmt":"2024-04-06T15:13:01","slug":"israel-says-it-recovered-body-of-elad-katzir-an-oct-7-hostage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/israel-says-it-recovered-body-of-elad-katzir-an-oct-7-hostage\/06\/04\/2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel Says It Recovered Body of Elad Katzir, an Oct. 7 Hostage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Israel\u2019s military said on Saturday that it had recovered the body of a man who was taken hostage from one of the communities hardest hit during the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack, almost six months to the day after his abduction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The man, Elad Katzir, 47, was killed in mid-January while being held in Gaza, an Israeli military official told a press briefing on Saturday. The circumstances of his death could not be confirmed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He had lived in Nir Oz, a kibbutz near the border with the Gaza Strip. Over a quarter of its more than 400 residents were either killed or abducted in the attack \u2014 including Mr. Katzir\u2019s father, Avraham, who was killed, and mother, Hanna, was also taken hostage, according to the Israeli military.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Hanna Katzir was released in November as part of a brief cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas in which <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/11\/24\/world\/middleeast\/israel-hostages-return-home.html\" title=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">more than 100 hostages were returned<\/a>. The return of Ms. Katzir, 76, stunned some of her family members, because Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a militant group backed by Iran, had earlier claimed that she was dead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The families of the remaining 133 hostages held in Gaza have expressed mounting anger and despair, saying that the Israeli government is not doing enough to reach a deal for their release. On Saturday, Mr. Katzir\u2019s sister, Carmit, denounced the Israeli government for not reaching an agreement in time to secure her brother\u2019s release.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cHe could have been saved if there had been a deal in time,\u201d she wrote of her brother on Facebook. \u201cBut our leadership are cowards, motivated by political considerations, and thus it did not happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">About 100 hostages are still being held by Palestinian militants in the enclave, according to the Israeli authorities; over 30 others are now presumed dead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Israeli military said that Mr. Katzir\u2019s body had been recovered by troops in Khan Younis, a city in the southern part of Gaza where the Israeli army has been operating since December. Around 8 p.m. on Friday night, Israeli forces arrived in southern Khan Younis, isolated the area and excavated his body from where he was buried underground, the military official said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Forensic pathologists in Israel confirmed his identity, and officials then informed his family, the military said. The Israeli military\u2019s assertion that he had been killed by his captors, Islamic Jihad, could not be verified.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Islamic Jihad had released at least two videos of Mr. Katzir, a farmer who was born in Nir Oz. He was last seen in a video released in early January, in which he said he had been held for more than 90 days and described hearing on the radio of the death of a close friend from Nir Oz.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Over the past several weeks, Israel and Hamas have resumed indirect negotiations over a possible cease-fire and the release of at least some hostages. Hamas said in a statement on Telegram on Saturday that a delegation of its leadership would travel to Cairo on Sunday for further negotiations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Friday, President Biden sent messages to the leaders of Egypt and Qatar \u2014 who act as intermediaries between Hamas and Israel \u2014 urging them to increase pressure on Hamas to make a deal. He has pressed Israel\u2019s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to do the same.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Israeli leaders have insisted that continued \u201cmilitary pressure\u201d on Hamas will force the group to come to the table. The families of many of the hostages, fearing that their loved ones could be killed by their captors or by errant Israeli fire, have demanded more immediate action.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cYour story shouldn\u2019t have ended like this,\u201d Carmit Katzir wrote of her brother on Facebook on Saturday. \u201cI\u2019m sorry we couldn\u2019t save you,\u201d she wrote, adding, \u201cI love you forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/06\/world\/middleeast\/israel-hostage-elad-katzir.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Israel&rsquo;s military said on Saturday that it had recovered the body of a man who was taken hostage from one of the<br \/><button class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/israel-says-it-recovered-body-of-elad-katzir-an-oct-7-hostage\/06\/04\/2024\/\">Read More &rsaquo;<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25879"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}