The hostage, Youssef Ziyadne, an Arab Bedouin, was seized along with three grown children on Oct. 7, 2023. Two of them were released, but there is “serious concern” about the fate of the third.

The Israeli military said that it had retrieved the body of a hostage who had been held in the Gaza Strip, as the Biden administration struggles to secure a cease-fire deal that would bring home dozens of hostages.

Yousef Al-Ziyadnah, 53, who was kidnapped during the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, was found dead in a tunnel in the Rafah area, a statement from the Israel Defense Forces said. The IDF said he had been “killed in captivity” and confirmed that the dead bodies of at least two Hamas operatives were found nearby.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli military strikes across Gaza killed at least 27 people on Wednesday, Palestinian medics said, as international mediators stepped up efforts to seal a ceasefire and hostage exchange deal between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.

Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas attacked southern Israel on 7 October, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Nearly 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeal’s retaliatory offensive.

Gaza’s health ministry said that 88 people had been killed over the past day. Israeli and Hamas officials have been holding indirect cease-fire talks via mediators in Qatar.