Israel returns remains of last Gaza hostage

TEL AVIV

Israeli forces brought home on Monday the remains of Ran Gvili, the last hostage held in Gaza, finally closing the chapter on a painful saga that has haunted Israeli society since Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023 attack.

Hamas took 251 hostages to Gaza that day, and the process of returning them has dragged over the course of the ensuing war in a series of ceasefire and prisoner-swap deals as well as efforts to rescue them militarily.

The most recent set of hostage handovers was part of the U.S.-backed Gaza ceasefire deal that took effect on Oct. 10, aiming to halt more than two years of fighting that has devastated the Palestinian territory.

The return of Gvili's remains paves the way for a limited reopening of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, a key entry point for aid into Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had signalled pedestrian crossings would resume at Rafah, subject to Israeli inspections, once every hostage had been recovered.

Gvili's coffin was accompanied by a convoy of cars with blaring sirens and flashing lights, passing civilians waving Israeli flags on the side of the road.

Hamas said it provided information on the location of Gvili's body, and spokesman Hazem Qassem said Monday that his recovery "confirms Hamas's commitment to all the requirements of the ceasefire agreement".

The first phase of the U.S.-backed deal stipulated the return of every hostage, and Gvili's family had opposed moving on to the second phase before they had received his remains.

Reopening Rafah forms part of the truce framework announced by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Footage released by the military showed Gvili's coffin draped in an Israeli flag and surrounded by soldiers singing the national anthem.

"With this, all hostages have been returned from the Gaza Strip to the State of Israel," the Israeli military said in a statement announcing it had definitively identified Gvili's remains.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog celebrated Gvili's return, saying that "for the first time since 2014, there are no Israeli citizens held hostage in Gaza. An entire nation prayed and waited for this moment."

Prior to Oct. 2023, two civilian hostages and the bodies of two Israeli soldiers killed in previous wars were being held in the territory.

U.S. President Donald Trump offered his congratulations on his Truth Social platform, adding: "Most thought of it as an impossible thing to do."

Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel was now "at the doorstep of the next phase" of the deal, which involves "disarming Hamas and demilitarising the Gaza Strip".

While the ceasefire plan demands the group's disarmament in the second phase, Hamas has so far refused to commit.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum has worked throughout the war to keep the plight of the captives in the public eye, organizing regular rallies at a plaza in Tel Aviv now known as Hostages Square, where supporters gathered again on Monday evening.

Central Gaza's Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said on Monday it had received nine living Palestinian detainees released by Israel after Gvili's recovery.

Hamas's 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to official Israeli figures.

Israel's genocidial war has left at least 71,660 people dead in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.