The Israeli military has found the body of an Israeli hostage in a building next to Gaza City's Al Shifa hospital, where Israel says the Islamist group Hamas' main military infrastructure is located, it announced Thursday.
The body found was identified as that of Yehudit Weiss, a 65-year-old woman kidnapped on October 7 by Palestinian militants in Kibbutz Beeri, an Israeli community next to Gaza, a military spokesman said, detailing that her body "was extracted by Israeli troops from a structure adjacent" to the Shifa medical center and later transferred to Israel.
The discovery of his body is the first to be made in Gaza City - the place where it was found is its center - and they are also the first mortal remains of a captive that Israel has found in areas further inland from the coastal enclave after 41 days of war.
Tents and shelters used by displaced Palestinians in the courtyard of Shifa hospital. Photo: Reuters
According to the Army, the identification of Weiss' body was made as part of a process carried out by military and Rabbinate medical personnel together with the Institute of Forensic Medicine and the Israel Police, who informed his relatives on Thursday.
In their attack on Israel on October 7, Gaza militias took more than 240 captives to the Strip, including the elderly, minors and foreigners, and according to the army, its "national task" now "is to locate the missing and return the abductees to their homes."
He said Weiss' body was found next to military equipment, "including Kalashnikov rifles," suggesting she had been guarded by militants at the same place of captivity.
The army did not specify more information on the cause of the captive's death, nor did it say whether she died in the midst of fighting or shelling in the area, where there have been heavy clashes in recent weeks.
According to Israeli media, Weiss was a mother of five and was receiving medical treatment for breast cancer. On the day of the Hamas attack, she was at her home in Kibbutz Beri when she was taken captive, while her husband, Shmulik Weiss, was found murdered.
The discovery of the body comes as Israeli forces conduct a "precise and targeted" operation for a second day at a nearby point, the Shifa hospital, the largest in the Strip.
According to Israel, Hamas is hiding in the same medical compound and surroundings what would be its main military center in the enclave.
Yesterday, Israeli forces announced the discovery of weapons, some vests of the al-Qassam Brigades - Hamas' armed wing - or a laptop with information and images of hostages in a ward of the Al Shifa hospital, although for now it has not revealed the presence of tunnels and an alleged underground military network.
For their part, the staff of the medical center insists that there were no militiamen or military activity on the premises throughout the war.
Source: EFE
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