WASHINGTON – The hostages Hamas fighters are holding include Kfir, a 10-month-old baby boy; his 4-year-old brother Ariel; and his parents Yarden and Shiri Bibas.
Emily Tony Korenberg Hand, a dual Irish-Israel citizen, was 8 years old when she vanished on Oct. 7, from Kibbutz Be’eri, and if still alive turned 9 on Friday.
Other captives unaccounted for include 12-year-old Erez, his 16-year-old sibling Sahar, and his father Ofer Kalderon, according to relatives.
On Friday, IDF spokesman R.-Adm Daniel Hagari said IDF found underground infrastructure and information about the hostages.
“Fighting in Gaza is fighting in a complex environment that requires time,” Hagari told reporters.
Also on Friday, the family of a 19-year-old Israeli soldier held a funeral after troops found her dead in Gaza and returned her remains to Modiin, where she was from.
Cpl. Noa Marciano served the the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps 414th unit. She vanished when Hamas overtook the Nahal Oz base on Oct. 7.
Hamas later released a video online of Marciano identifying herself before the frame cut to a shot of her lifeless body. The Israel Security Agency gathered intelligence on her case.
Marciano’s mother, Adi Marciano, spoke during the funeral: “Our Nooni, in a normal, just world, we shouldn’t be standing here right now, but we are not in a just world. You were only 19 when you died. We tried everything, 40 days in which we turned over every stone, searched every path, and climbed every tree, and today, we ask for your forgiveness. Sorry we didn’t make it. You guarded us but we didn’t guard you.”
The Israel Defense Forces reported troops of the Seventh Armored Brigade’s 603rd Battalion found her remains near the Al-Shifa hospital complex in Gaza City.
IDF reported troops found the remains of Yehudit Weiss, a nurse who worked at a community kindergarten, also near the hospital. Hamas attackers stormed her house at Kinnutz Be’eri, near Shifa, killed her husband, Shmulik Weiss, and took her hostage.
The families of Joshua Loitu Mollel, 21, of Tanzania, who was interning at a farm at Nahal Oz, and of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, an Israeli-American, who was at the Supernova music festival in Kibbutz Re’im, were still waiting for updates.
“It was something I could never imagine in my worst dream, that I would wake up to this nightmare. I know that my son was a hero,” Natalia Casarotti said on Friday in South Florida about her 21-year-old son Keshet Casarotti Kalfa, who was kidnapped at the music festival.
Israeli police updated the music festival’s death count to over 360 on Friday, The Times of Israel reported.
Clemence Felix Mtenga, 22, of Tanzania, was interning at Nir Oz when he vanished on Oct. 7. Tanzania’s Foreign Ministry announced he was dead.
As the Israel-Hamas war raged in Gaza, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, a spokesman for IDF, reported Hamas has underground tunnels, uses civilians as shields, and a hospital as cover for a command center.
The White House announced President Joe Biden talked to Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani about the “urgent need” for hostages “to be released without further delay.”
As negotiations continued, Israel’s War Cabinet refused to comply with Hamas militants’ request to release thousands of prisoners in exchange for the hostages.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced criticism as Palestinian health authorities announced the death toll in Gaza was over 11,470 and some 2,700 had vanished.
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan said there was an ongoing investigation into war crimes.
Local 10 News partners ABC News and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Kennedy reported from Washington and Torres contributed to this report from Miami.