The body of Israeli soldier Corporal Noa Marciano, who was abducted by Hamas during the October 7 attacks, was brought back to Israel after being found in a structure adjacent to the Shifa Hospital in Gaza on Thursday, the IDF announced.
Following an identification process that was conducted by military medical and rabbinate personnel, IDF representatives informed her family that her body had been extracted and returned to Israeli territory.
Hamas had released a video of Marciano's body earlier in the week, claiming she had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. Israeli forces said that the evidence suggested she had been killed by Hamas.
"The IDF sends its heartfelt condolences to the family and will continue to support them," an IDF spokesperson said in a statement.
Who was Noa Marciano?
Marciano, a 19-year old from Modiin, was a member of the 414th Battalion in the Border Guard Corps. She was kidnapped by Hamas from the IDF base at Kibbutz Nahal Oz when it was stormed by terrorists during the October 7 massacre.
"Our hearts are with the Marciano family whose daughter, Noa, was brutally kidnapped by the Hamas terrorist organization,” the military stated. “The IDF and all the relevant bodies will continue to support her family, as well as all of the families of the hostages and missing persons. We are using all means, both intelligence and operational, to bring the hostages home.”
"The national task before our eyes is to locate the missing and return the abducted persons home. 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."
Hamas continues to hold nearly 240 hostages that it kidnapped during the attacks, in violation of international law. Reports have indicated that Israel and Hamas are in talks, through Qatar, regarding a potential deal for the release of about 50 hostages in exchange for a three-day pause in fighting.
The Marciano family has been one of the leading families of hostages in their fight for the return of the abductees.
“Our children are there,” said Avi Marciano, Noa’s father, at a five-day march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem attended by thousands calling for the release of the hostages. “You will not make a deal on your own. There will not be more than one transaction, and in this transaction you will come to talk to us. We’re done with niceties. We’re taking off our gloves and coming to fight you. Shame on you.
“We were abandoned once on the black Sabbath. We were abandoned a second time when we were informed of Noa’s death. We cannot allow the Israeli government to abandon us a third time.”
Judith Sudilovsky contributed to this report.