TEL AVIV - The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced Friday that it had recovered the body of an Israeli hostage in the Gaza Strip while advancing in its offensive on the city. The hostage was identified as 55-year-old Ilan Weiss from the village of Be'eri near the Gaza Strip border. His wife and daughter were kidnapped in a Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023 and were released alive after 50 days of captivity as part of a ceasefire and hostage agreement.
Weiss was presumed missing until January 1, 2024, when the IDF announced that he had been killed on the day of the attack, which was later confirmed by Israel's National Center for Forensic Medicine. The hostage retrieval operation was carried out by the IDF Southern Command in coordination with the IDF Intelligence Directorate, the Shin Bet security agency, the Hostage and Missing Persons Command, and other special units. The IDF added that findings regarding another deceased hostage, whose name has not yet been approved for publication, were also obtained and confirmed. According to Israeli authorities, nearly 50 hostages are still being held in Gaza, with about 20 believed to be alive. Earlier in the day, the IDF announced a pause in the day's fighting to allow humanitarian aid to enter the famine-stricken city.
Israeli state television station Kan TV News said Friday night that Israel will halt its operation to drop humanitarian aid over Gaza City in the coming days, and that ground aid trucks will also be restricted from entering the northern Gaza Strip. Kan said the Israeli army is expected to take control of Gaza before the Jewish New Year, which falls on September 23. Kan quoted senior Israeli security officials as saying that in about a week and a half, the first notices will be sent to Gazans calling on them to leave immediately.
The al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said on Friday that Israel's plans to occupy Gaza would be "disastrous". The brigades' spokesman, Abu Obeida, said in a press statement that the operation would come at a high cost to Israel's political and military leadership and that the Israeli army would "pay with the blood of its soldiers". He claimed that the group would continue to hold Israeli prisoners under the same conditions as its fighters and would release details in the event of their deaths. The warning came after the Israeli army on Friday announced the launch of "preliminary operations and initial stages" of an assault on Gaza, saying its forces were operating with "great intensity" on the outskirts of the city.
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