Body of hostage found near Shifa Hospital

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Israel’s military said Thursday it found the body of one of the hostages abducted by Hamas terrorists, 65-year-old Yehudit Weiss, in a building adjacent to Shifa Hospital, where it said it also found assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. It did not give the cause of her death.

Israeli troops for a second day searched Shifa Hospital in the north for traces of Hamas. They displayed what they said were a tunnel entrance and weapons found in a truck inside the compound.

The war, now in its sixth week, was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel in which the terrorists killed over 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and captured some 240 men, women and children. Weiss, the woman whose body was found Thursday, is the third hostage confirmed dead, while four others have been freed and one rescued.

A day after storming into Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital, Israeli troops continued searching the complex. Gaza’s Health Ministry said the troops searched underground levels of the hospital Thursday and detained technicians who run its equipment.

Israel said its soldiers brought medical teams with incubators and other supplies, though Shifa staff said incubators were useless without fuel.

Israel faces pressure to prove its claim that Hamas set up its main command center in and under the hospital, which has multiple buildings over an area of several city blocks. So far, it has mainly shown several caches of weapons.

Video released

On Thursday, the military released video of a hole in the hospital courtyard it said was a tunnel entrance. It also showed several assault rifles and RPGs, grenades, ammunition clips and utility vests laid out on a blanket that it said were found in a pickup truck in the courtyard.

In recent weeks, Israel depicted the hospital as the site of a major Hamas headquarters. It released satellite maps that specified particular buildings as a command center or as housing underground complexes. It released a computer animation portraying a subterranean network of passageways and rooms filled with weapons and fuel barrels.

The U.S. said it has intelligence to support Israeli claims.

The allegations are part of Israel’s broader accusation that Hamas terrorists use Palestinians as human shields across the Gaza Strip — which Israeli officials say is the reason for the large numbers of civilian casualties during weeks of bombardment.

More than 11,470 Palestinians have been killed, according to Palestinian health authorities. Another 2,700 have been reported missing, believed buried under rubble. The official count does not differentiate between civilian and terrorist deaths, and Israel says it has killed thousands of terrorists.

The military says it has largely consolidated its control of the north, though fighting continues there. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday the ground operation will eventually “include both the north and south. We will strike Hamas wherever it is.” He did not give a time frame.

Israeli forces dropped leaflets Thursday telling Palestinians in areas east of the southern town of Khan Younis to evacuate. Similar leaflets were dropped over northern Gaza for weeks ahead of the ground invasion.

Strikes continued in the south Thursday.

The Israeli military has called on people to move to a “safe zone” in Mawasi, a town on the Mediterranean coast a few square miles in size, where humanitarian aid could be delivered.

The heads of 18 U.N. agencies and international charities on Thursday rejected the creation of a safe zone, saying that concentrating civilians in one area while hostilities continue was too dangerous. They called for a cease-fire and unimpeded entry of humanitarian aid and fuel for Gaza’s population.

Israel has sealed off Gaza since the start of the war, allowing only a trickle of aid from Egypt. It also bars delivery of fuel, saying it will be diverted to Hamas terrorists — though it allowed a small amount this week for U.N. trucks to use in delivering aid.

Lack of fuel also brought down the internet and phone network in the Gaza Strip, and it can’t be restarted unless Israel lets in fuel, said Palnet, the main Palestinian telecoms provider. That raises the potential for a long-term communications blackout, after three earlier shutdowns that Gaza authorities were able to repair.

Weapons, gear found

In the structure where the body of Yehudit Weiss was found, a significant amount of combat gear and weapons were also found, including the body of her husband, Shmulik Weiss, who was initially classified as missing. Two weeks later, it was revealed that he was brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists.

Yehudit Weiss, who was diagnosed with breast cancer, had been classified as missing until Thursday. The family received an official notification from the IDF that Yehudit was counted among the kidnapped after she was located with the help of a phone trace, as her mobile phone was found within the Gaza Strip.

Shmulik and Yehudit met in the Jordan Valley. They became a couple, got married, and had five children. They ended up living in Kibbutz Be’eri, where more than 100 people were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists.

On Oct. 7, Yehudit and Shmulik were at their home in Kibbutz Be’eri. Contact with them was severed a day later at 10:07 in the morning. Four of their children – Giora, Asaf, Omer, and Daniel – live in the kibbutz and survived after taking refuge in a protected space with their grandchildren.

Family members said that Yehudit wrote in the family WhatsApp group: “We are okay, and we love you. Be strong.” After IDF forces entered Kibbutz Be’eri, it was discovered that the house of Yehudit and Shmulik Weiss was burned to the ground.

Israel Hayom contributed to this story. Israel Hayom is owned by the Adelson family, including Dr. Miriam Adelson, which also owns the Review-Journal.