The Israeli military says it has retrieved the body of the last hostage in Gaza, paving the way for the next phase of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan to get under way.
It had been searching for Master Sgt Ran Gvili since the ceasefire with Hamas began in October.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Gvili’s return “an extraordinary achievement”.
The Israeli military began a new operation to find Gvili on Sunday. Earlier, Hamas’s armed wing said it had provided mediators with “all the details and information” about Gvili’s location.
Netanyahu’s office said Israel would reopen Gaza’s key border crossing with Egypt once the operation to find and return Gvili was complete.
Netanyahu hailed the return of Gvili’s body, saying: “We promised - and I promised - to bring everyone back. We brought them all back, down to the very last captive,” he said.
The Israeli military said the clarification of existing intelligence over the weekend had enabled the search of a cemetery near Gaza City.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said the discovery of the body “confirms Hamas’s commitment to all the requirements of the ceasefire agreement”.
The retrieval of Gvili adds fresh impetus to Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza. Israel had resisted moving forward until Gvili was found.
Phase two is meant to involve the reconstruction and full demilitarisation of Gaza, including the disarmament of Hamas and other Palestinian groups. The plan is also meant to see the deployment of an as-yet unconstituted International Stabilization Force (ISF) and the progressive withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced Gvili’s retrieval in a statement, saying: “According to the information and intelligence available to us, Sgt Maj (res) Ran Gvili... a Yamam commando fighter, aged 24 at the time of his death, fell in battle on the morning of October 7, 2023, and his body was abducted to the Gaza Strip.
“The IDF shares in the family’s grief. The IDF will continue to accompany the families and the returned hostages and to act to strengthen the security of Israel’s citizens.
“With this, all of the hostages from the Gaza Strip area have been returned.”
Hamas was meant to return all hostages, alive and dead, within 72 hours of the ceasefire taking effect. Twenty living Israeli hostages and the bodies of 27 dead Israeli and foreign hostages were handed over, leaving only Gvili missing.
The policeman was one of 251 hostages taken in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 in which about 1,200 people were killed. Most of the hostages were released alive over the course of the next two years in exchange for 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,718 detainees from Gaza.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, launched in response to the attack, has killed 71,660 Palestinians, the Hamas-run health ministry has said.
Source: BBC
- Agencies
