Two years and eight months after the massacre: Human bones were discovered this evening (Wednesday) in the Dor Tza'ir neighborhood in Kfar Gaza.
According to a report in Kan News, the bones were found by the family of Nirel Zini, a Givati officer whose head was decapitated - and has not been located since.
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Among the findings was part of a skull, and it is now being examined to see whether it belongs to Niral HaYad.
The bones were sent for examination at the Institute of Forensic Medicine.
Family members come every week to search the area around Nirel's house for his remains. "Nirel's brother found remains around the house, we really hope these are Nirel's remains," said Amir Zini, Nirel's father.
Nirel's family, along with five other families whose children were murdered or kidnapped in the Dor Tza'ir neighborhood in Gaza City, petitioned the High Court of Justice demanding a halt to the evacuation, demolition, or relocation of the neighborhood's buildings.
Zini, who served in the IDF for about a decade, was critically injured during an operational activity in Hebron in 2015 but returned to service after a lengthy rehabilitation.
On October 7, 2023, he was at his home in Kfar Aza with his partner, Niv Raviv, and at 10:04 AM, he sent a message to his family: "I'll update, they're here. I'm putting down my cell phone, pray.".
According to family members, Zini tried to distract the terrorists to allow his partner to hide, but the two were murdered. Only six days later were their bodies found, and during a meeting with Lahav 433 investigators, the family learned that Nirel's head had been decapitated during the massacre.
Family members claimed that they were not informed of the details before the funeral, and that for a long period of time no official took action to locate Nirel's head.
