Body of Israeli Hostage Found in Raid, Sister Slams Bibi

Body of Elad Katzir, 47, recovered in Gaza's Khan Younis, has been returned to Israel, military says
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 6, 2024 9:00 AM CDT
IDF Recovers Body of Israeli Hostage During Raid
Maya Palty stands with a poster in Kibbutz Nirim on Jan. 11 showing her relative, Elad Katzir, who was taken hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7.   (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

The body of a hostage taken from Israel during Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel was recovered by the nation's military during an overnight raid in the Gaza city of Khan Younis, reports the BBC. "The body of ... Elad Katzir, who according to intelligence was murdered in captivity," has been returned to Israel, per a joint statement from the Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli Security Agency, which notes that Katzir was IDed by medical officials.

  • Abduction: Katzir was taken hostage on Oct. 7 from Kibbutz Nir Oz, along with his 77-year-old mother, Hanna Katzir, who the Times of Israel notes was released on Nov. 24 with more than 100 other hostages as part of a temporary ceasefire deal with Hamas. His father, 79-year-old Avraham "Rami Katzir," was murdered during the initial attack.
  • Abductors: NBC News reports that, per Israeli military intelligence, Katzir died in captivity not with Hamas itself, but with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a militant organization that participated in the Oct. 7 massacre. The PIJ is considered a terror group by both the US and the EU.
  • Video: In December, the group released a recording of a man speaking from Gaza who IDed himself as Katzir, pleading for his release. In another video released in January, a man who appeared to be Katzir asked Israel to stop the war and bring himself and the other hostages home, per the BBC.
  • Sister's message: Carmit Palty Katzir reacted online after news of her brother's death broke. She called the IDF's rescue "brave," but she says her sibling "could have been saved if a deal would have happened on time," and she didn't have kind words for the "cowardly" Israeli leadership in general or for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu specifically. "Prime Minister, the war cabinet and members of the coalition. Look at yourself in the mirror and say if your hands didn't spill that blood," she wrote Saturday on Facebook. She also noted that the Israeli government has "no way to protect the kidnapped, even when they know where they are."
(More Israel-Hamas war stories.)

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