JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said on Wednesday that its troops had recovered the body of a hostage in Gaza and brought it back to Israel following a “complex and difficult operation”.

In a statement, the military said: “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”.

Earlier on Wednesday, Defence Minister Israel Katz had announced 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”.

Israel says bodies of six hostages retrieved from Gaza tunnel

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 Arab Bedouin father and son were seized by Palestinian 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.

During their attack, 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.