The extremist Salafi terror group known as the Mujahideen Brigades, responsible for murdering multiple hostages seized during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, is still holding the body of a foreign national, the Israeli military said Friday.
The group, which broke away from Fatah during the Second Intifada, murdered Nattapong Pinata, a 36-year-old Thai citizen, after abducting him alive from Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Oct. 7 rampage. His body was recovered Thursday—609 days later—in a joint operation by the Israeli military and the Shin Bet internal security agency.
According to the Israel Defense Forces, the same group also murdered Israeli mother Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, while they were in captivity in Gaza. Their remains were returned in February as part of a hostage deal. The IDF said the group continues to hold the body of another foreign national killed in captivity.
Mujahideen Brigades terrorists also held the bodies of Israeli-Americans Gadi Haggai and Judy Weinstein, who were abducted from Nir Oz on Oct. 7 and killed shortly afterward. Their bodies were recovered earlier this week.
Founded in 2001 at the onset of the Second Intifada, the Mujahideen Brigades split from the Fatah movement. Its fighters had formerly belonged to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and the group was led at one point by Omar Abu Sharaya, whom Israel targeted in 2006. He died six months later from wounds sustained in the assassination attempt.
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The group adheres to a radical Salafi ideology that calls for a return to Islamic roots through violent means. In April 2024, the group announced the deaths of several senior members in Israeli strikes, including a central rocket unit commander, a senior figure in the Deir al-Balah battalion, and a member of the battalion’s special forces.
In the wake of the October massacre, the group falsely claimed that Bibas and her children were killed by Israeli airstrikes. However, the Israeli military later confirmed they were brutally murdered in captivity in November 2023.
The operation to recover Pinata’s body was based on “precise intelligence,” the IDF and Shin Bet said in a joint statement. Officials said the information came from the interrogation of a captured terrorist, combined with data from the Hostage Headquarters and Military Intelligence Directorate.
Troops conducted searches in the Rafah area of southern Gaza. The operation was led by the IDF’s Southern Command, with participation from the Gaza Division, the Oketz canine unit, the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, and several intelligence units.