Israel Recovers Body of Last Hostage in Gaza, Paving Way for Next Phase of Plan To Rebuild Enclave After Two-Year War With Hamas

Israeli Defense Forces have recovered the body of the last remaining hostage in Gaza, a 24-year-old Master Sergeant, Ran Gvili, following a large-scale clandestine operation that brings to a close the return and recovery of all 251 hostages taken on October 7, 2023.“There are officially no more hostages in captivity in Gaza,” the Israeli Defense Forces X page posted Monday.“Ran Gvili, the last hostage in Gaza, has been brought home,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement Monday. “First to enter. Last to return.”Gvili was the first hostage taken during the attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7. A police officer on medical leave, he joined his unit during the battle to protect at Kibbutz Alumim, where he was shot in the leg and died. Hamas fighters then kidnapped his body and took it back to Gaza.Gvili was supposed to be returned as part of the ceasefire deal negotiated between Israel and Hamas in September, but as the exchange for live hostages, then bodies of slain hostages came home, he remained an outlier. According to military officials, the recovery effort intensified over the weekend based on new intelligence suggesting Gvili was buried in a Muslim cemetery in the Shejaiay Darah-Tuffah neighborhood of eastern Gaza City.The IDF, working with forensics experts, began exhuming hundreds of bodies at the cemetery along the Yellow Line that serves as the security border between Israel and Gaza. On Monday, forensics specialists dentists deployed to the cemetery confirmed a match based on dental structure. Fingerprints and other tests were also conducted to confirm his identity, according to the military, The Times of Israel reports.The IDF noted that Gvili’s family had been informed “that their loved one has been identified and will be returned for burial.” The military added that, out of respect for the dead, it would return all other exhumed bodies to their graves and clean up the cemetery.“The entire people of Israel are moved to tears. Our hearts are with his parents, Talik and Itzik, who fought a noble and heroic battle to bring him home,” said President Isaac Herzog. “This was an operation of immeasurable importance in fulfilling the sacred obligation to redeem captives. After many difficult years, for the first time since 2014, there are no Israeli citizens held hostage in Gaza. An entire nation prayed and waited for this moment.”The return of Gvili brings a somber end to a two-year saga for the families of captives and signals the completion of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, fulfilling a key pillar of the truce brokered in part by President Trump. The development is expected to remove a significant hurdle in the implementation of the ceasefire deal and trigger the second phase of the agreement, which includes the partial reopening of the Rafah border crossing and implementation of a transitional government to be overseen by an executive team operating as part of the president’s Board of Peace.The second phase is also expected to include the withdrawal of Israeli forces, the disarmament of Hamas, and the establishment of an international force to oversee security.As the focus shifts to the long-term future of the enclave, international stakeholders are proposing differing visions. Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, recently unveiled plans for a “New Gaza” featuring high-rise buildings and tourism, a stark contrast to the current devastation.

Israel Recovers Body of Last Hostage in Gaza, Paving Way for Next Phase of Plan To Rebuild Enclave After Two-Year War With Hamas

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