Youssef Ziadna lived in a Bedouin village in Israel’s southern Negev desert.
On the morning of October 7, 2023, he went to work at the dairy farm of Kibbutz Holit, where he and his three children had a picnic.
They were among 251 Israelis and non-Israeli citizens taken hostage when hundreds of Hamas-led gunmen stormed the Israeli-Gaza perimeter fence and killed about 1,200 others.
In response to the attack, Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas. More than 45,930 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Israel says 95 hostages remain in Gaza, 34 of whom are presumed dead, as well as four other Israelis kidnapped before the war, two of whom are dead.
The Israeli military said Youssef Ziadna was “killed in captivity” and that his family had been notified following an identification process by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine and the Israel Police.
Spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told reporters that special forces found his body next to the bodies of several armed guards, and that it was not known how or when he died.
“We are currently investigating the circumstances of his death and also investigating the findings regarding his son,” he said, according to Reuters.
“These findings raise concerns for his life and they are still under review at this time,” he added, without elaborating.
Earlier, Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote on X that the bodies of Yusef and Hamza had been found.
Prime Minister Netanyahu said: “We hoped and worked for the safe return of the four members of the (Ziadna) family who were held hostage by Hamas.”
“We got the children Bilal and Aisha back in November 2023 and we also wanted to get Yusef and Hamza back. My sincere condolences to the family.”
He also promised that Israeli security forces would “continue to make every effort to return all our hostages, living and dead.”
The Forum of Hostages and Families of the Missing, which represents the families of some of the hostages, lamented that a potential ceasefire and hostage release deal being discussed in Doha “comes too late for Youssef”.
“Each day in captivity poses an immediate mortal danger to the hostages who managed to survive for 15 months, and threatens the possibility of returning the deceased for burial,” the statement said.
