Gaza, Israel finds a lifeless hostage. Who killed him – Time

The body of Elad Katzir, one of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, was recovered by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in a raid in the Gaza Strip. Carmit Katzir, Elad’s sister, made it known in a post on Facebook, announcing that her family had been informed that her brother was murdered during his imprisonment, later explaining that he will be buried in Kibbutz Nir Oz. In a joint message the IDF and the Shin Bet announced that, according to credible intelligence sources, Katzir was assassinated by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Katzir’s mother, Hanna Katzir, was also abducted from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7 and released on November 24 as part of a temporary ceasefire agreement brokered by Qatar and the United States between Hamas and Israel. His father, Rami Katzir, was killed during the Hamas attack.

And just in the last few hours, President Joe Biden wrote to the leaders of Egypt and Qatar inviting them to put pressure on Hamas to reach an agreement on the hostages with Israel. Yesterday Biden called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to increase efforts to reach a ceasefire. Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, will meet on Monday with family members of some of the approximately 100 hostages believed to still be in Gaza, according to the official. The letters to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, come as Biden sent CIA Director Bill Burns to Cairo for talks this weekend over the hostage crisis. White House officials say negotiating a pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas to facilitate the exchange of hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel is the only way to implement a temporary ceasefire and increase the flow of aid humanitarian.