TEL AVIV, May 3. /TASS/. One Israeli citizen, included in the list of hostages, held in the Gaza Strip, died on October 7, 2023, his body was found on Israeli territory, the IDF press office announced.

According to the press office, the deceased Israeli’s name was Elyakim Libman. According to The Times of Israel, Libman, 23, worked as security at the Nova music festival on the Gaza border at the moment of the Palestinian attack. Since then, he was considered a hostage, and nothing was known about his location.

Libman’s identify was confirmed after a forensics research, carried out by the IDF and the National Forensics Institute of Israel. His relatives were notified.

The situation in the Middle East sharply escalated following an incursion of Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip into Israel on October 7, accompanied by killings of residents of Israeli settlements near the border and taking more than 200 hostages, including children, women and elderly people. Hamas cast the attack as a response to Israeli actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Israel declared a complete siege of the Gaza Strip and started striking the enclave and parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.