The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Friday it recovered the remains of Ilan Weiss, a 55-year-old from Be'eri, near the Gaza border. Weiss was taken hostage during the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023.
Weiss’s wife and daughter were released alive after 50 days in captivity under a ceasefire-hostage deal. Though he was declared killed on the attack day by Israel’s National Center for Forensic Medicine, his remains were only located and retrieved this week.
Alongside Weiss’s remains, the operation also recovered evidence linked to another deceased hostage, whose identity has yet to be cleared for release. According to Israeli authorities, nearly 50 hostages remain in Gaza, with around 20 believed to be alive.
As the IDF presses its ground offensive, it has suspended the daily humanitarian pauses that allowed aid into the famine-hit city. Kan TV News reports that airdrops of food will end in the coming days, and truck convoys to northern Gaza will be sharply reduced.
Senior Israeli security officials told Kan that notices instructing Gaza City residents to evacuate could be issued within 10 days, as the military aims to seize control before the Jewish New Year on September 23.
In response, the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, warned that any occupation of Gaza City would be “disastrous” for Israeli leadership. Spokesperson Abu Obeida claimed the army would “pay in the blood of its soldiers” and vowed to keep holding Israeli prisoners under current conditions.
The conflict has now entered what the IDF called the “preliminary operations and initial stages” of its campaign on Gaza City’s outskirts, marking an intensification of efforts that experts say could reshape the region’s humanitarian and security landscape.
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Israel recovers hostages' remains as Gaza offensive continues
cgtn.com
