The Israeli army announced in a statement, today, Friday, that it had informed the Al-Zayadneh family in the Negev, of the death of their son Hamza, a day after his father’s funeral, following his death in the Gaza Strip, where he was being held captive.

The army said in a statement, "After completing the diagnostic process at the Forensic Medicine Institute and the Israel Police, army representatives informed the Al-Zayadneh family this morning of the news of the killing of their son Hamza Al-Zayadneh in a Hamas prison, after he was kidnapped into the Gaza Strip."

He stated that "during the activities of the army and Shin Bet forces over the past few days inside the Gaza Strip, the forces found and returned the bodies of Yousef and Hamza al-Zayadneh from inside an underground tunnel in the Rafah area."

The family of the deceased announced on Wednesday evening that they had received an official notification that the bodies of Youssef and his son Hamza had been found in Gaza and returned to Israel, amid conflicting statements issued by the Israeli Minister of Security, Yisrael Katz, on the one hand, and the army on the other, as the latter announced the return of Youssef’s body and the discovery of evidence linked to Hamza.

Yousef and Hamza al-Zayadneh were detained in the October 7, 2023 operation carried out by Hamas targeting military sites and Israeli towns in the “Gaza Envelope,” while they were working in one of the towns in the area.