(8 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rahat – 8 January 2025
++NIGHT SHOTS+++
1. Pan from ambulance driving to people gathering following the announcement of recovery of hostage body
2. Pan from poster with the photos of hostages Yosef AlZaydani (left) and his son Hamzah to people gathering, reading (Arabic, Hebrew and English) “Bring them home” to people gathering
3. SOUNDBITE (Hebrew) Talal Alkernawi, Mayor of Rahat:
“It is a very difficult incident. The family is in pain, crying and screaming. They received the announcement with deep sadness.”
4. Various of people gathering
5. SOUNDBITE (Hebrew) Talal Alkernawi, Mayor of Rahat:
“We had all read the names (of the hostages) that were published, and they were among the names of the living ones. We expected to bring them back alive. Unfortunately, it seems that they and others were murdered, and this is a great pain. Instead of returning them alive to their families, to raise their children, we receive them dead.”
6. Various of people gathering
STORYLINE:
Shock and dismay dominated the hometown of an Israeli hostage on Wednesday after soldiers recovered his body in Gaza.
The mayor of Rahat Talal Alkernawi said the family and town residents received the announcement with "great pain".
"We expected to bring them back alive. Unfortunately, it seems that they and others were murdered," he added.
Israeli soldiers found the body of the 53-year-old hostage in an underground tunnel in southern Gaza, the military said, and the army was determining if another set of remains belongs to the man’s son.
The discovery of Yosef AlZayadni’s body comes as Israel and Hamas are considering a ceasefire deal that would free the remaining hostages in Gaza and could halt the fighting.
Israel has declared about a third of the 100 hostages dead, but believes as many as half could be.
Yosef and his son Hamzah AlZayadni were thought to still be alive before Wednesday’s announcement, and news about their fate could ramp up pressure on Israel to move forward with a deal.
The military said it found evidence in the tunnel that raised “serious concerns” for the life of Hamzah AlZayadni, 23, suggesting he may have died in captivity.
Yosef AlZayadni and three of his kids were among 250 hostages taken captive after Hamas-led militants stormed out of Gaza into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people.
AlZayadni, who had 19 children, worked at the dairy farm at southern Israel’s Kibbutz Holit for 17 years, said the Hostages Families Forum, a group representing the relatives of captives.
AlZayadni’s teenage children, Bilal and Aisha, were released along with about 100 hostages in a weeklong ceasefire deal in November 2023.
The family are members of the Bedouin community, part of Israel’s Palestinian minority who have Israeli citizenship.
The traditionally nomadic community is particularly impoverished in Israel and has suffered from neglect and marginalization.
Palestinians make up some 20% of Israel’s 10 million population, and millions more live in Gaza and under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank.
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