Military recovers bodies of two Israeli
hostages in area of Gaza’s Shifa
Hospital

Yehudit Weiss was undergoing
cancer treatment at time of Oct. 7
attack, when her husband was
murdered; Cpl. Noa Marciano
served at overrun IDF base,
her death was confirmed Monday

By Emanuel Fabian and ToI Staff

16 November 2023

The bodies of two Israeli hostages
abducted by Hamas on October 7
were recovered Thursday by the
Israel Defense Forces from the
area of Shifa Hospital in the
Gaza Strip, the military said.

On Thursday evening, the
Israel Defense Forces said
troops had located the body
of Yehudit Weiss in a building
near the medical center’s
compound. On Friday morning,
the IDF said it had also
recovered the body of Cpl.
Noa Marciano a day earlier
from another building
adjacent to Shifa, three
days after announcing she
had been killed in Hamas
captivity.

The IDF said troops from the
7th Armored Brigade’s 603rd
Battalion found Weiss’s body,
along with military equipment,
including assault rifles and
RPGs, belonging to the
Hamas terrorists who had
held her captive.

“To our sorrow, Yehudit was
murdered by the terrorists
in the Gaza Strip. And we
didn’t get to her in time,”
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm.
Daniel Hagari said in his
daily press briefing on
Thursday evening. He
did not specify when
she was killed.

Her body was brought
into Israel for identification,
following which the military
and police notified Weiss’s
family of her death.

Weiss, 65, a mother of five,
was abducted from Kibbutz
Be’eri on October 7, when
thousands of Hamas terrorists
streamed into Israel, murdering
at least 1,200 people and
taking some 240 hostages.
Her husband, Shmulik,
was found murdered in the
safe room of their home
a week and a half after the attack.

Sending its “heartfelt condolences
to the family,” the IDF
stressed in a statement that
“the national mission… is to
locate the missing and
return the hostages home.”

Weiss, a retiree who worked
with kindergarten children
and in the kibbutz dining
room, was being treated
with radiation for breast
cancer when she was kidnapped.

“The IDF is operating alongside
and in full coordination
with the relevant national
and security institutions
in order to pursue these
tasks. We will not cease
from the mission until it
will be completed,” the statement
said.

Marciano’s body was
recovered by troops from
the same battalion, following
intelligence information
provided by the Shin Bet
security agency. Her body
was then brought to Israel
for identification.

Marciano, 19, of the
Combat Intelligence Collection
Corps 414th unit, was serving
at the Nahal Oz IDF base
when it was overrun by
terrorists during their
murderous onslaught
on southern Israel on
October 7. She lived in
Modiin and was the
oldest of three siblings.

Her funeral was held on
Friday. In her eulogy,
Noa’s mother, Adi,
apologized to her
daughter for being
unable to return her home.

“We tried everything for
40 days. We turned over
every stone and climbed
every tree,” she said.
“You protected us, and
we didn’t protect you.”

She recalled her daughter
being a “girl of music and
literature, a girl of
dimples and smiles,
a girl of love,” who wanted
to serve her country.

Noa’s father said he had
been confronted with the
question “What do you need?”
over the past few weeks.

“I answered that I have
everything, and yet I have
nothing. I don’t have joy or
comfort. Now I have an
angel named Noa. I promise
you that the way you
wanted to lead, we will
carry on and not stop.
I thank you for being
a perfect girl. We love
you endlessly and will
never forget you,” he said.

Yuval, Noa’s sister, lamented
that she had bought a
birthday present for her,
which was “waiting in
your room, in wrapping.”

“I am proud of you,
I am happy you cared,
that you did what was
good for you, that you
danced, sang, and you
fulfilled yourself like
there was no tomorrow.”

On Monday evening,
Hamas published a propaganda
video of Marciano, showing
her speaking to the
camera four days after
being taken hostage,
identifying herself and
reciting the names of her
parents and her hometown.
The video then cut to showing
her body.

Weiss and Marciano are
the first two abductees known
to have died in captivity.

In an interview with Channel 12
after they were told of her death,
Weiss’s family members appealed
to officials to bring home the
rest of the captives being held
by terror groups in Gaza.

“It’s important for us to say
that we fought, we battled
in every possible way to bring
mom, grandma Yehudit home,”
her daughter Zemer said.
“For us, it is too late, but
it is important for us to
support all the families of
the hostages, and to tell
the world, bring them
home now, so that for
them it is not too late,
like it was for us.”

Her son Ohad added that
they had “hope, a lot of
hope, that she would
come home. We wished,
we hoped, and sadly
for us, it is too late, but
maybe for the other
families it isn’t.

“We wish for the
return of everyone,
all of them, children,
soldiers and adults.
We love them all and
fear for them all,” he added.

Her children said that
they only just completed
the 30-day mourning
period for their father
when they received the
news about their mother’s death.

Earlier, family members
of those missing and held
captive in Gaza walked
alongside hundreds of
Israelis on the third day
of a march from Tel Aviv
to the Prime Minister’s
Office in Jerusalem,
which they plan to
reach on Saturday afternoon.

The families reached Modiin,
where they paid a condolence
call to the Marciano family.

Published by: The Times of Israel
November 16, 2023

Trump says US sends too many
weapons to Ukraine, refuses to call
Putin war criminal

by The Kyiv Independent news desk

May 11, 2023

Former U.S. President Donald Trump
said at CNN's town hall that he would
not commit to providing Ukraine
with defense assistance if he won the
2024 election.

"We're giving away so much
equipment, we don't have
ammunition for ourselves right
now," Trump said, as cited by
CNN. He also refused to say
who he thinks should win
Russia's war against Ukraine,
telling the voters instead that
he wants "everybody to stop dying."

At the New Hampshire event,
the ex-president said he doesn't
"think in terms of winning
and losing" but rather
"in terms of getting it settled
so we stop killing all these
people." Trump added he
would stop Russia's war
"in 24 hours" if re-elected.

When asked if he considered
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin
a war criminal, Trump replied
that it "should be discussed later."

"If you say he's a war criminal,
it's going to be a lot tougher to
make a deal to make this thing
stopped," Trump told the
audience, according to CNN.
"If he's going to be a war
criminal, people are going to
grab him and execute him,
he's going to fight a lot harder
than he's fighting under the
other circumstances."

In March, the International
Criminal Court issued arrest
warrants for Putin and
Maria Lvova-Belova,
the Russian official overseeing
the forced deportations of
thousands of Ukrainian
children to Russia.

This is not the first time
Trump has made controversial
comments on Russia's war
against Ukraine and Putin,
in particular.

Regarding his time in office,
Trump said he "got along
with (Putin) great" during
an interview with Fox News
in early March, adding that
if he'd still been president,
Putin likely wouldn't have
invaded Ukraine.

"I could have negotiated,"
Trump continued. "At worst,
I could've made a deal to take
over something, there are
certain areas that are
Russian-speaking areas,
frankly, but you could've worked
a deal."

Trump's future in politics
remains uncertain due
to his recent indictment over
a "hush money" scandal
and a jury verdict that he
is civilly liable for sexually
assaulting a woman.
Trump announced his
plan to seek a second
non-consecutive term as
president in November 2022.