Hundreds attend wedding of former Gaza hostage Bilal Ziyadne in Rahat

Former Hamas hostage Bilal Ziyadne married on Friday night in Rahat, a major Bedouin city in southern Israel, with hundreds of people attending the celebration, according to Hebrew media reports. The wedding took place almost exactly three years after his release from Gaza during the first hostage agreement following the October 7, 2023, attack.

The reports did not name the bride. Speaking to the Maariv daily, Ziyadne’s brother Muhammad described the turnout and said the family had also recently celebrated their sister’s marriage. “A lot of people came to celebrate with us,” he said. “Our sister got married about two months ago and it was a great joy.”

Ziyadne was working at Kibbutz Holit in southern Israel on the morning of October 7 when Hamas attackers entered the community and abducted him. Three other members of his family were taken captive from the kibbutz alongside him: his father, Youssef, his older brother, Hamza, and his younger sister, Aisha.

The attack also brought losses elsewhere in the family, with other relatives killed that day. Another relative saved dozens of people from the Nova music festival. Four members of the Ziyadne family were taken from Holit into captivity, but only Bilal and Aisha returned through the initial release agreement.

Bilal was 18 and Aisha was 17 when they were abducted. They were freed on November 30, 2023, under a temporary ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas that was brokered by Qatar and the United States. Their release was linked to their ages, as both were younger than 19 at the time.

In an interview with Channel 13 in December 2023, a few weeks after returning from captivity, Bilal said the captors had known that he and his relatives were Arabs. He recalled telling the attackers they were Arabs and being told that they would be kidnapped regardless.

Bilal also said that he had been held together with his relatives. Although he and Aisha were released in the first deal, their father and older brother remained in Gaza and were subsequently found dead.

Youssef’s remains were discovered in a tunnel in Gaza on January 8, 2025. A few days after that discovery, Hamza’s murder was confirmed.