An Israeli hostage held by Hamas in Gaza has been killed, the man’s kibbutz community confirmed after the Palestinian group claimed he had died during a failed rescue attempt, AFP reports.

Sahar Baruch, 25, is the latest confirmed fatality among scores of Israelis and foreigners taken captive during Hamas’s October 7 attacks on southern Israel.

Beeri, the Gaza border community Baruch was from, and the Israeli Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a joint statement he had been “murdered”. “It is with deep sorrow and a broken heart that we announce the murder of Sahar Baruch,” the statement said.

He was “kidnapped from his home by Hamas terrorists to Gaza… and murdered there,” it added without providing evidence.