The body of Israeli soldier Corporal Noa Marciano, kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7 attacks, was returned to Israel after being found in a building next to Shifa Hospital in Gaza on Thursday, the IDF announced .
After an identification process conducted by military medics and rabbis, IDF officials informed her family that her body had been recovered and returned to Israeli territory.
Hamas released a video of Marciano’s body earlier this week, claiming she was killed in an Israeli airstrike. Israel Defense Forces said the evidence suggested she was killed by Hamas.
“The IDF extends its sincere condolences to the family and will continue to support them,” an IDF spokesman said in a statement.
Who was Noa Marciano?
Marciano, a 19-year-old from Modiin, was a member of the 414th Battalion of the Border Guard Corps. She was kidnapped by Hamas from the IDF base in Kibbutz Nahal Oz when it was stormed by terrorists during the October 7 massacre. People gather in front of the United Nations headquarters in Jerusalem, demanding action to return hostages kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7 attacks in Jerusalem, November 13, 2023. (Source: Portal/AMMAR AWAD)
“Our thoughts are with the Marciano family, whose daughter Noa was brutally kidnapped by the Hamas terrorist organization,” the military said. “The IDF and all relevant agencies will continue to support her family and all of her families.” the hostages and missing persons. We are using all intelligence and operational resources to bring the hostages home.”
“The national task before our eyes is to locate the missing and return the abducted people home. The IDF works alongside and in full coordination with relevant national and security institutions to pursue these tasks. We will not give up the mission until then it will be completed. Advertising
Hamas continues to hold nearly 240 hostages it kidnapped during the attacks, in violation of international law. Israel and Hamas, through Qatar, are reportedly in talks over a possible deal to release about 50 hostages in exchange for a three-day pause in fighting.
The Marciano family was one of the leading hostage families in their fight for the return of the abductees.
“Our children are here,” Avi Marciano, Noa’s father, said during a five-day march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem attended by thousands demanding the release of the hostages. “You won’t do a deal on your own. There will not be more than one transaction and that transaction is where you come to talk to us. We’re done with the finer points. We take off our gloves and come to fight you. Shame on you.
“We were once abandoned on the Black Sabbath. When we learned of Noa’s death, we were abandoned a second time. We cannot allow the Israeli government to abandon us a third time.”
Judith Sudilovsky contributed to this report.