Hamas said a female hostage was killed in Israeli operations in northern Gaza.
The woman’s identity has not been released and it is unclear how or when she died.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they were currently unable to “verify or refute” the claim but that their representatives were contacting the woman’s family.
“This evening, the terrorist organization Hamas released a document in which a kidnapped woman was allegedly killed,” the IDF said in a statement. “We are checking the information and at this stage we cannot verify or refute it.”
Hamas claims that contact with the woman’s captors was recently restored after several weeks, leading to her death being discovered.
Abu Ubeida, spokesman for Hamas’s military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, said another female hostage taken with the woman was injured and her life was in danger.
Israeli authorities believe there are about 60 hostages alive in Gaza – and the bodies of dozens more believed dead.
The news comes as Israel continued to conduct operations across Gaza on Saturday.
According to the territory’s Hamas-run Health Ministry, about 120 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes across the territory in the past 48 hours.
Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which left about 1,200 people dead and 251 others taken hostage.
According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, nearly 44,000 people have been killed and more than 104,000 injured in Gaza since then.
