19-year-old Cpl. Noa Marciano, IDF, seen in propaganda clip filmed four days after she was taken hostage in Gaza; Israeli military says she is now recognized as a ‘fallen soldier held captive by a terror group’.
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The Israel Defense Forces announced on Tuesday the death of Cpl. Noa Marciano, 19, who was captured by the Hamas terror group on October 7.
Marciano, 19, of the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps 414th unit, was serving on the Nahal Oz IDF base when it was overrun by terrorists during their murderous onslaught on southern Israel. She lived in Modiin and was the oldest of three siblings.
Terror groups in Gaza are believed to be holding some 240 people hostage after it took them captive in southern Israel on October 7. Hamas has repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims that some hostages have been killed by Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.
Since October 7, four hostages — Judith and Natalie Ra’anan, Yocheved Lifshitz and Nurit Cooper — have been released by Hamas, and one captive, Ori Megidish, was rescued by IDF troops. In recent weeks, reports have been swirling about efforts to finalize a deal to free a significant number of hostages, but nothing concrete has emerged, and Israel has repeatedly quashed rumors and said that if any serious deal materialized it would inform the public.
On Monday evening, Hamas published a propaganda video of Marciano, showing her speaking to the camera four days after being taken hostage, identifying herself and reciting the names of her parents and her hometown. The video then cut to showing her dead body.
The IDF said Tuesday that it now recognizes Marciano as a “fallen soldier held captive by a terror group.”
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On Monday evening, the military said it sent representatives to the Marciano family home to inform them of the video.
“Our hearts go out to the Marciano family, whose daughter, Noa, was brutally kidnapped by the Hamas terror organization,” it said in a statement. The IDF said that “Hamas continues to use psychological terror and behaves inhumanely, through videos and photos of hostages, as it has done in the past.”
The military reiterated that it is “using all means, both intelligence and operational, to bring the hostages home.” Channel 12 news reported that the IDF said it made its declaration about Marciano’s death based on intelligence information, and not based on the Hamas video.
Her mother, Adi Marciano, traveled around the world to lobby for her release along with family members of the other captives being held in Gaza.
Last month, in an interview with Ynet, Adi said she wanted Noa to know “that I miss her and want her to come home. My instincts tell me that she is still alive. She’s probably watching over the little kids.” She worried, she said, “does she have her glasses? Are they hurting her?”
Last week, Palestinian Islamic Jihad released a video featuring two hostages, s Hannah Katzir, 77, and Yagil Yaakov, 13, both kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
The terror group claimed that it would release the two hostages once the “appropriate measures are met,” a claim Israel dismissed as further psychological manipulation.
Hamas has been holding the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin since 2014, as well as two Israeli civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who are both thought to be alive.
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