Israel army says body of hostage retrieved from Gaza

The Israeli military said Wednesday that its troops recovered the body of a hostage in Gaza and brought it back to Israel following a "complex and difficult operation".

The body of Bedouin Arab hostage Youssef al-Zayadna was found as international mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States kept up a push for a ceasefire and hostage release deal.

"The troops located and recovered the body of hostage Youssef al-Zayadna from an underground tunnel in the Rafah area of the Gaza Strip and returned his body to Israel," the Israeli military said in a statement.

Earlier on Wednesday, Defence Minister Israel Katz had said that the remains of Zayadna's son, Hamza, had also been brought to Israel.

The military clarified that the son's body had not been recovered, although "findings were located related to Hamza... which raise serious concerns for his life".

Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said in an online briefing that troops carried out what he described as a "complex and difficult special operation" to retrieve the body.

The father's body was "brought to Israel for an identification process, after which we confirmed his identity and notified his family. We are currently investigating the circumstances of his death," Shoshani said.

The Bedouin Arab father and son were seized by Palestinian militants from Kibbutz Holit near the Gaza border during the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023.

Kidnapped with them were Hamza's sister and brother, who were released during a week-long truce in November 2023.

- 'Time is running out' -

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to "make every effort to bring all our captives home -- both the living and the fallen".

Netanyahu's critics have accused him of blocking a negotiated deal for their release, while he has blamed Hamas for not accepting his conditions.

Campaign group, the Hostage and Missing Families Forum, called for a deal to be struck as quickly as possible.

"The emerging agreement comes far too late for Youssef, who was taken alive and should have returned the same way," the forum said in a statement.

"Every day in captivity poses an immediate mortal danger to the hostages who have managed to survive for 15 months, and threatens the possibility of returning the deceased for burial."

President Isaac Herzog also pushed for accelerated efforts to bring the remaining hostages home.

"They have endured 460 days of worry, hope and endless longing," Herzog said in a statement.

"Time is running out. Youssef was abducted alive! Our hostages are in immediate life-threatening danger."

During their attack, militants took 251 people hostage. Of those, 95 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

The 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed 45,936 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.

Mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been brokering a fresh round of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas in Doha.

- Deal 'very close' -

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that a deal was "very close".

"I hope that we can get it over the line in the time that we have," Blinken said, referring to President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20.

But if not, "I believe that when we get that deal -- and we'll get it -- it'll be on the basis of the plan that President (Joe) Biden put before the world back in May."

In May, Biden unveiled a three-phase plan for the release of the hostages and a ceasefire in Gaza.

As the negotiations continue, Israeli forces again pounded Gaza on Wednesday, killing at least 14 people across the already devastated territory.

In one strike on a family home in the Zeitun neighbourhood of Gaza City, five people were killed, the civil defence agency said.

The Israeli military also announced the deaths of three soldiers in fighting in northern Gaza, where it has been conducting a major offensive since October 6.

The latest deaths bring the military's losses to 399 in the ground campaign it launched in Gaza on October 27, 2023.