Military recovers bodies of two Israeli hostages in area of Gaza’s Shifa Hospital
Yehudit Weiss was undergoing cancer treatment at time of Oct. 7 attack, when her husband was murdered; Cpl. Noa Marciano served at overrun IDF base, her death was confirmed Monday
The bodies of two Israeli hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 were recovered Thursday by the Israel Defense Forces from the area of Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip, the military said.
On Thursday evening, the Israel Defense Forces said troops had located the body of Yehudit Weiss in a building near the medical center’s compound. On Friday morning, the IDF said it had also recovered the body of Cpl. Noa Marciano a day earlier from another building adjacent to Shifa, three days after announcing she had been killed in Hamas captivity.
The IDF said troops from the 7th Armored Brigade’s 603rd Battalion found Weiss’s body, along with military equipment, including assault rifles and RPGs, belonging to the Hamas terrorists who had held her captive.
“To our sorrow, Yehudit was murdered by the terrorists in the Gaza Strip. And we didn’t get to her in time,” IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in his daily press briefing on Thursday evening. He did not specify when she was killed.
Her body was brought into Israel for identification, following which the military and police notified Weiss’s family of her death.
Weiss, 65, a mother of five, was abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, when thousands of Hamas terrorists streamed into Israel, murdering at least 1,200 people and taking some 240 hostages. Her husband, Shmulik, was found murdered in the safe room of their home a week and a half after the attack.
Weiss, a retiree who worked with kindergarten children and in the kibbutz dining room, was being treated with radiation for breast cancer when she was kidnapped.
Sending its “heartfelt condolences to the family,” the IDF stressed in a statement that “the national mission… is to locate the missing and return the hostages home.”
“The IDF is operating alongside and in full coordination with the relevant national and security institutions in order to pursue these tasks. We will not cease from the mission until it will be completed,” the statement said.
Marciano’s body was recovered by troops from the same battalion, following intelligence information provided by the Shin Bet security agency. Her body was then brought to Israel for identification.
Marciano, 19, of the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps 414th unit, was serving at the Nahal Oz IDF base when it was overrun by terrorists during their murderous onslaught on southern Israel on October 7. She lived in Modiin and was the oldest of three siblings.
Her funeral was held on Friday. In her eulogy, Noa’s mother, Adi, apologized to her daughter for being unable to return her home.
“We tried everything for 40 days. We turned over every stone and climbed every tree,” she said. “You protected us, and we didn’t protect you.”
She recalled her daughter being a “girl of music and literature, a girl of dimples and smiles, a girl of love,” who wanted to serve her country.
Noa’s father said he had been confronted with the question “What do you need?” over the past few weeks.
“I answered that I have everything, and yet I have nothing. I don’t have joy or comfort. Now I have an angel named Noa. I promise you that the way you wanted to lead, we will carry on and not stop. I thank you for being a perfect girl. We love you endlessly and will never forget you,” he said.
Yuval, Noa’s sister, lamented that she had bought a birthday present for her, which was “waiting in your room, in wrapping.”
“I am proud of you, I am happy you cared, that you did what was good for you, that you danced, sang, and you fulfilled yourself like there was no tomorrow.”
On Monday evening, Hamas published a propaganda video of Marciano, showing her speaking to the camera four days after being taken hostage, identifying herself and reciting the names of her parents and her hometown. The video then cut to showing her body.
Weiss and Marciano are the first two abductees known to have died in captivity.
In an interview with Channel 12 after they were told of her death, Weiss’s family members appealed to officials to bring home the rest of the captives being held by terror groups in Gaza.
“It’s important for us to say that we fought, we battled in every possible way to bring mom, grandma Yehudit home,” her daughter Zemer said. “For us, it is too late, but it is important for us to support all the families of the hostages, and to tell the world, bring them home now, so that for them it is not too late, like it was for us.”
Her son Ohad added that they had “hope, a lot of hope, that she would come home. We wished, we hoped, and sadly for us, it is too late, but maybe for the other families it isn’t.
“We wish for the return of everyone, all of them, children, soldiers and adults. We love them all and fear for them all,” he added.
Her children said that they only just completed the 30-day mourning period for their father when they received the news about their mother’s death.
Earlier, family members of those missing and held captive in Gaza walked alongside hundreds of Israelis on the third day of a march from Tel Aviv to the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, which they plan to reach on Saturday afternoon.
The families reached Modiin, where they paid a condolence call to the Marciano family.
The Times of Israel Community.