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⇒ IDF announces having found the remains of a hostage soldier
⇒ The hunt continues in al-Chifa hospital
⇒ Blinken calls for “urgent” measures against settler violence
IDF finds remains of female hostage
The Israeli army announces that it has found the remains of a soldier held hostage in Gaza. This is Noa Marciano, a 19-year-old soldier held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. “The body of IDF soldier Corporal Noa Marciano, who was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7, was removed by IDF troops from a structure adjacent to al-Chifa hospital in the Gaza Strip and was brought back to Israel,” Ofir Gendelman, Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesperson for the Arab world, said on Twitter.
“Urgent” measures against settler violence
The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken called on Israel on Thursday to take “urgent” measures to put an end to settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. Antony Blinken, who is in San Francisco for an Asia-Pacific summit, made the call in a telephone conversation with Benny Gantz, an Israeli opposition leader who has joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet.
The minister “underscored the urgent need to take concrete steps to defuse tensions in the West Bank, including addressing increasing levels of violence from extremist settlers,” the US State Department spokesperson said , Matthew Miller.
The hunt in al-Chifa hospital continues
This Friday, the Israeli army is intensifying its hunt for suspected Hamas hideouts hidden in al-Chifa, the largest hospital in Gaza, a Palestinian territory where the humanitarian situation is worrying and where telecommunications are now out of service due to lack of fuel.
An Israeli army official announced that soldiers were “searching every floor, building after building while hundreds of patients and medical staff are still in the complex.” “We are focusing on what is underground, including in hospitals. As such, our soldiers discovered the entrance to a tunnel at al-Chifa hospital and military engineers are currently working to dig up the infrastructure on site,” spokesperson Daniel Hagari said late Thursday evening.
Washington against strikes targeting hospitals
The United States said Thursday it was “deeply concerned” by the strike which hit the Jordanian military hospital in Gaza and injured seven people, saying it was opposed to airstrikes on hospitals.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by telephone with the Jordanian Foreign Minister “to express his deep concern about injured Jordanian medical personnel outside the Jordanian field hospital as “he was providing essential medical care in Gaza,” the State Department said. The head of American diplomacy “reiterated that civilians and medical personnel in hospitals must be protected,” according to a press release.
Body of hostage found near al-Chifa
The Israeli army announced Thursday that it had discovered, near the al-Chifa hospital in Gaza, the body of a hostage kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7 attack in Israel and murdered, according to it, by the movement Palestinian Islamist.
The body of this woman, kidnapped in Kibbutz Beeri, “was extracted by Israeli army troops from a structure adjacent to al-Chifa hospital in the Gaza Strip and was transferred to Israeli territory” , said an army press release. The victim is identified by the army as Yehudit Weiss.
Hostages: the Minister of the Armed Forces has “hope”
The French Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, declared that he had “hope” regarding the fate of the French hostages held by Hamas, after taking stock Thursday in Qatar on the current discussions.
“This stop here in Qatar has a particular role, it allows us to take stock of the various discussions that are underway. Everything is being done to obtain their release,” he told France Info after speaking with the authorities. Qataris in Doha. “This is the hope that we will send to the families” of people held hostage in the Gaza Strip by the Palestinian Islamist movement.