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IDF Soldier Held Captive by Hamas in Gaza Confirmed Dead
A woman reacts, as people gather in front of the UN Headquarters in Jerusalem demanding for action to be taken to return the hostages kidnapped by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attacks, in Jerusalem, Nov. 13, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
Cpl. Noa Marciano, from the city of Modi’in in central Israel, has died as a hostage of the Hamas terror group in Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed on Tuesday.
Marciano was a member of the army’s combat intelligence arm and was kidnapped from her base in Nahal Oz, a kibbutz in southern Israel, during Hamas’ Oct. 7 cross-border assault across southern Israeli communities in which terrorists murdered over 1,200 people and kidnapped more than 240 others.
Hamas on Monday released a propaganda video of Marciano, 19, identifying herself and reciting the names of her parents and her hometown. The video then cut to images of her lying dead with a bloody head wound.
The Palestinian terror group said Marciano’s death was due to IDF military strikes in Hamas-ruled Gaza following the Oct. 7 atrocities. However, experts have said it appears more like she was bludgeoned to death, presumably by her captors.
“Our hearts go out to the Marciano family, whose daughter, Noa, was brutally kidnapped by the Hamas terror organization,” the IDF said in a statement. “Hamas continues to use psychological terror and behaves inhumanely, through videos and photos of hostages, as it has done in the past.”
The military added that it is “using all means, both intelligence and operational, to bring the hostages home.”
The IDF confirmed Marciano’s death based on intelligence, not the Hamas video, according Israel’s Channel 12 news.
Hamas has released other videos of hostages in recent weeks, showing them under duress attacking Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and saying they have been treated well.
Netanyahu has pledged to bring all hostages home, saying that it is the top priority of the country and that no ceasefire in Gaza will happen until they are released.
Families of hostages have been protesting in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem demanding that their loved ones be returned. Marciano’s mother, Adi Marciano, had traveled around the world to lobby for her release along with family members of the other captives held in Gaza, who include children and the elderly.
On Tuesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and families of hostages met with the head of the International Red Cross, which has been advocating for the well-being and release of the captives, in order to plead for their help. Hamas has forbidden the Red Cross from entering where the hostages are being kept and ensuring their safety.
Hamas has said it would release the hostages in exchange for Israel handing over all Palestinian prisoners sitting in Israeli jails. So far, Hamas has released only four hostages in two separate occasions.
Israel also announced last month that an IDF private, Pvt. Ori Megidish, held hostage by Hamas was liberated during ground operations in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another terrorist group based in Gaza, released a hostage video last week of two Israelis being held in Gaza. The group said in a statement that it is willing to release the pair, Hanna Katzir, 77, and Yagil Yaakov, 12, both of Kibbutz Nir Oz, for “humanitarian reasons.”
The vast majority of the roughly 240 hostages in Gaza are believed to be in the hands of Hamas, but Islamic Jihad, a smaller and allied terrorist group in the Palestinian enclave, has said previously it held at least 30 captives.
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UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”
“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”
Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.
“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”
Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”
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Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
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Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’
FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.
US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.
“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.
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