Hostages in Gaza: the lifeless body of Youssef Al-Zyadna, Israeli Bedouin, found

It’s the end of a terrible wait and the outcome is not what their loved ones hoped for. The body of Youssef Al-Zyadna, 53, was found lifeless this Tuesday in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, while he was held hostage by Hamas since the attack on October 7, 2023, confirmed this Wednesday January 8 the Israeli army.

The fate of his son Hamza, 22, also a hostage, remains unknown for the moment. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz initially announced on X that the bodies of the two men had been found by the armed forces, before the IDF mentioned only one death, that of the father of the family.

A family hit hard by the attacks

The Al-Zyadna family comes from one of the Bedouin villages located in the Negev Desert in southern Israel. The Bedouins of the Negev represent only 4% of the Israeli population. Israeli citizens and Muslims, they mainly speak Arabic, although they are proficient in Hebrew. “But our traditions, our culture are a little different from those of Arab countries,” stressed Ali, nephew and cousin of the hostages, to the Parisian.

For a long time, the Bedouins of the Negev had not publicly shared their suffering. The names of their hostage relatives did not even appear in the official lists, at their request. It was not until early December 2023, almost two months after the attacks, that they agreed to publish their names and photos.

Four members of the family, agricultural workers, were kidnapped by Hamas during the terrorist attacks of October 7, while they were on Kibbutz Holit, located a few kilometers from the Gaza Strip. Their loved ones, meanwhile, were in a remote village without bomb shelters, without sirens.

As the hours passed, Youssef was missing, as were three of his children, Hamza, but also Bilal and Aïcha, aged 18 and 17. They were kidnapped while on the kibbutz as part of their work as agricultural workers. If the two youngest regained their freedom thanks to the truce at the end of November 2023, their eldest and their father remained detained. And the wait was long.

Youssef, “a pillar for his family”

Noaf and Ali Al-Zyadna had notably warned about the illnesses from which the two men suffered and the lack of care which could put them in danger: Youssef was suffering from diabetes and needed treatment with insulin, when Hamza was a regular victim of ophthalmic migraines. The father of the family, in his fifties, was described as “a man of dialogue and human relations, a pillar for his family and an influential figure in his community”, underlined this Wednesday in a press release the Forum of Families of Hostages and Disappeared.

“Unfortunately, Youssef was captured in Gaza by people who have no compassion and no ounce of Islam. What they did on October 7, it doesn’t matter if it was a Bedouin or a Jew, it should not happen according to Islam,” one of their relatives told the Israeli television Kan. However, his name appeared on the list of hostages potentially “releasable” if an agreement was reached in the coming days between Israel and Hamas.

“We want peace between Israel and Palestine”

“We know that war is a disaster. On both sides. We must make peace between Israel and Palestine, we are all human beings. We are neighbors and we must live together. Living in peace, working together… What’s the point of all that? We have no choice, we have to live together,” said the 63-year-old uncle, who had dressed in a suit especially to meet the press.

“The fact that peace is achievable is our hope for the future,” Ali added. I work with Gazans, Jews, Israeli Arabs. And no one hates each other. » “We want peace between Israel and Palestine,” concluded Ali and his uncle Noaf in one voice. A year later, they are plunged into mourning and terrible waiting, like their entire family, while more than 90 people are still considered held hostage in Gaza.