Military finds body of hostage in building adjacent to Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital
Israel’s military said Friday it found the body of another hostage, Cpl. Noa Marciano, in a building adjacent to to Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, like that of another hostage found Thursday, Yehudit Weiss.
Hundreds of mourners, many carrying Israeli flags, attended Marciano’s funeral Friday in her hometown of Modi’in. The 19-year-old Israeli soldier was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 in a surprise attack in southern Israel that sparked a war, now in its sixth week.
Her coffin, draped in the blue-and-white Israeli flag, was carried beside large photos of a smiling Marciano. In one photo, she wears a graduation cap and gown.
“Our Nooni, in a normal, just world, we shouldn’t be standing here right now. But we are not in a just world. You were only 19 when you died,” Adi Marciano, her mother, said during the funeral service.
“We tried everything — 40 days in which we turned over every stone, searched every path and climbed every tree — and today, we ask for your forgiveness,” she said. “Sorry we didn’t make it. You guarded us but we didn’t guard you.”
More than 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, have been killed in the war, and some 240 men, women and children have been abducted.
Israeli forces have signaled they could expand their offensive toward Gaza’s south while continuing operations in the north. Troops have been searching Shifa Hospital for traces of a Hamas command center Israel alleges was located under the building.
Israeli military spokesman Col. Richard Hecht acknowledged that the troops’ search for traces of Hamas was going slowly. “It’s going to take time,” he said.
So far, Israel has shown photos and video of weapons caches that it says were found inside as well as what it said was a tunnel entrance.
Aid dries up
After an American request, Israel agreed to let a “very minimal” amount of fuel into Gaza each day, national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said.
The United Nations on Friday stopped deliveries of food and other necessities to Gaza and warned of the growing risk of widespread starvation after internet and telephone services collapsed in the enclave because of a lack of fuel.
The Palestinian telecommunications company Paltel said later Friday that phone and internet services were partially working again across Gaza.
NetBlocks, a group tracking internet outages, confirmed that “internet connectivity is being partially restored” in the Gaza Strip.
Dehydration and malnutrition are growing, with nearly all residents in need of food and clean drinking water, said Abeer Etefa, a Mideast regional spokeswoman for the U.N.’s World Food Program.
Israeli officials previously vowed fuel would not be let in until Gaza terrorists release the hostages. The government has been under heavy public pressure to show it is doing all it can to bring back people abducted in Hamas’ attack.
March for hostages
Thousands of marchers — including families of over 50 hostages — embarked Friday on the fourth leg of a five-day walk from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, chanting, “Bring them home!”
They are marching to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, calling on his war Cabinet to do more to rescue their loved ones. They have urged the Cabinet to consider a cease-fire or prisoner swap in return for the hostages.
Hamas has offered to exchange all hostages for some 6,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails, which the Cabinet has rejected.