Israel Katz, the country’s defense minister, announced Tuesday that the bodies of Youssef and Hamza Ziyadne, the father and son hostages, had been discovered in Gaza.
Katz expressed his sympathies to the family of X and promised that their memories would live on. He continued by saying that while serving as Israel’s foreign minister, he supported the brave family during trying times and developed a close relationship with Ali, Yosef’s brother and Hamza’s uncle, who traveled with me on many of my diplomatic engagements.
As international mediators stepped their attempts to finalize a truce and hostage exchange agreement between Israel and the Palestinian organization Hamas, Palestinian medical professionals said that Israeli military attacks in Gaza killed at least 27 Palestinians on Wednesday.
At least ten individuals were murdered by an attack in a multi-story home in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan district, while five more were killed in the Zeitoun suburb nearby, according to medical officials.
Seven people were killed, they said, in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, and in Deir Al-Balah city in central Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are taking refuge.
Israel’s military claimed to have hit Hamas militants operating in a Jabalia school and to have taken precautions to reduce the danger to civilians.
Five Palestinians were killed by an Israeli bombardment within Gaza City’s public garden later on Wednesday, according to medical officials. The Israeli military did not comment.
According to health officials in the enclave, Israel’s 15-month-long war against Hamas has killed almost 46,000 Palestinians, and such mass casualties are a regular occurrence in Gaza.
The United States, Qatar, and Egypt were working hard to come to a ceasefire agreement while Israel kept up its bombardment.
Many in the area see President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20 as an unofficial deadline, and the departing U.S. administration has urged for a last-ditch effort to reach an agreement before President Joe Biden leaves office.
Early on Tuesday, Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, expressed his expectation that by the time Trump takes office, he will have positive news to share regarding the Israeli prisoners he has taken. Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons would also be released as part of a compromise.
Meanwhile, the Gaza Health Ministry issued a warning, saying that unless the Israelis stop limiting the flow of gasoline to the facilities, Nasser Hospital and the Gaza European Hospital may cease operations in a few hours.
Later, it stated that until more fuel arrives, the limited amount of fuel it got would postpone a total shutdown until Thursday.
Israel denies impeding Gaza’s humanitarian aid.
After Hamas militants overran southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli estimates, the nation began its attack on Gaza.
Much of the enclave has been destroyed by its Gaza campaign. According to humanitarian organizations, the majority of the 2.1 million residents of the region have experienced repeated displacement and are severely short on food and medicine.
Both Israel and Hamas blame the other for obstructing a ceasefire and hostage-exchange agreement by upholding terms that have sabotaged all prior peace attempts for over a year.
Hamas reaffirmed its demand on Tuesday that Israel agree to stop the war and remove all of its troops from Gaza before it will release the other hostages. Israel claims that unless Hamas is destroyed and all hostages are released, the war will not stop.
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