Israeli authorities identify Gaza hostages dead in captivity

This handout picture released by Israel’s Government Press Office on Dec. 1, 2023, shows former Arab-Israeli hostage Bilal Al-Ziyadne (L) reunited with a relative at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, following his release by Hamas on Nov. 30, 2023. (AFP)

• The families of the hostages Eliyahu Margalit, Maya Goren, Ronen Engel and Arye Zalmanovich had been informed of their deaths
• In all, some 240 hostages were seized during the Oct. 7 attack

JERUSALEM: Israeli forces identified the body of one the hostages seized by Hamas gunmen on Oct. 7 and confirmed that another four had died, the military said on Friday, as fighting resumed in the Gaza Strip after a week-long pause.
Ofir Tzarfati, one of the people captured at the Nova music party in Re’im just outside Gaza, was found by Israeli forces recently and identified earlier this week by forensic officials, the military said in a statement.
In addition, chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the families of the hostages Eliyahu Margalit, Maya Goren, Ronen Engel and Arye Zalmanovich had been informed of their deaths, based on “reliable intelligence.”
A group representing hostage families also said a sound engineer at the Nova festival named as Guy Illouz, who had been taken hostage, was confirmed to have died in captivity.
In all, some 240 hostages were seized during the Oct. 7 attack, in which some 1,200 Israelis and foreigners were killed, according to Israeli authorities.
During the seven-day pause, which ended on Friday morning, authorities said 110 hostages — 86 Israelis and 24 foreigners — were released in exchange for Palestinian detainees, while the bodies of two hostages were recovered by Israeli troops.
Hamas said this week that the youngest hostage, 10-month-old Kfir Bibas, his 4-year-old brother Ariel and their mother Shira Bibas had been killed during an Israeli bombardment but the Israeli military said the information was still not verified.
Israel has responded to the Oct. 7 attack with its heaviest-ever bombardment of Gaza and with a ground invasion of the enclave that together have killed more than 14,000 people, around 40 percent of them under 18, according to Palestinian authorities.
Israeli leaders have vowed to continue the operation to return all the hostages to Israel and destroy Hamas, the Islamist movement which rules Gaza and has vowed to annihilate Israel.