The Israeli military says it has retrieved the body of the last remaining hostage in Gaza.
It had been searching for Master Sgt Ran Gvili since the ceasefire with Hamas began in October.
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 but for the past few weeks Hamas said it had not yet been able to locate Gvili.
On Sunday, Israel said it would reopen Gaza’s key border crossing with Egypt once the operation to find and return Gvili was complete.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Gvili’s return “an extraordinary achievement”.
“We promised – and I promised – to bring everyone back. We brought them all back, down to the very last captive,” he said.
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 clears the way for Israel and Hamas to advance to the second phase of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan.
Phase two is meant to involve the reconstruction and full demilitarisation of Gaza, including the disarmament of Hamas and other Palestinian groups.
Israel had resisted moving forward until Gvili was found.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said: “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.”
Some 251 hostages were 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.
