An Israeli hostage still held captive in Gaza “was killed under mysterious circumstances” in the fighting zoneor, therefore presumably in the North of the Strip: the Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera reports it, citing “sources of the Al-Qassam Brigades”. According to the newspaper, an investigation is underway to ascertain what happened, but the Al-Qassam Brigades have no intention of disclosing the name of the dead hostage “for security reasons”. Already on other previous occasions, the Al-Qassam Brigades had announced the killing of Israeli prisoners following the violent Israeli bombings that had targeted various areas of the Gaza Strip. Israeli estimates indicate that 107 Israelis are still detained in Gaza, more than 50 of whom are definitely still alive, while Palestinian fighters have never confirmed these numbers. At the beginning of last September, the spokesperson of the Al-Qassam Brigades Abu Ubaida said that the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and his insistence on freeing the prisoners militarily rather than through an agreement makes their death likely, as happened with the bodies of the 6 prisoners found in a tunnel in Rafah at the end of August.
Meanwhile, a very loud bang was heard in Tel Aviv at 6.33pm. Ansa found this on the spot. The IDF announced that the loud bang heard in Tel Aviv was caused by a rocket launched from Lebanon which fell and exploded in central Israelin an open area. The warning sirens were not activated as the trajectory was not towards populated areas, just as the air defense system did not come into operation.