Israel says it has retrieved remains of final Gaza hostage

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 searching a cemetery for Gvili on Sunday morning. 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 the cemetery near Gaza City. A military official said the cemetery “was located in the area of the Yellow Line”, the boundary to territory still controlled by Israeli forces under the ceasefire deal.

Hamas said it had “kept updating the mediators with the necessary information, which resulted in retrieving the body”.

Spokesman Hazem Qassem said the discovery “confirms Hamas’s commitment to all the requirements of the ceasefire agreement”.

The retrieval of Gvili may bring closure to his family and it finally ends Israel’s hostage agony after 843 days.

It also opens the way for further progress in Gaza’s ceasefire deal. 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.

On Friday, the Gvili family gathered in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, as they had every week since he and the other 250 were abducted on 7 October 2023.

“I looked them in the eyes and said: ‘We will bring Rani home’,” Netanyahu recounted on Monday. “I promised you, citizens of Israel: We will bring everyone home.”

It is a promise finally delivered, and will be celebrated, but his critics say it has taken too long and cost too many lives – Israeli and Palestinian.

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.”

Netanyahu said he sent soldiers into Gaza to return the hostages and defeat Hamas.

Opening the Rafah border crossing is an important next step but other difficult issues have to be confronted.

How will Hamas be disarmed and unpicked from the fabric of Gaza? When will Israel’s army withdraw? And who will make up the international force delivering security for the future?

This is the first time since 2014 there are no Israeli hostages, alive or dead, being held in Gaza – a reminder of the deep roots of this conflict and how difficult it could still be to shape a lasting peace.

Reacting to the return of Gvili’s body, Trump posted on Truth Social: “Just recovered the last Hostage body in GAZA. Thus, got back ALL 20 of the living Hostages, and ALL of the Dead! AMAZING JOB!”

The president said “most thought of it as an impossible thing to do” and congratulated his “great team of Champions”.

Hamas was meant to return all hostages, alive and dead, within 72 hours of the ceasefire taking effect. The process took far longer, but eventually 20 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.