The Japan Times - Israel identifies latest hostage body, as families await five more

The Israeli military identified the body handed over on Friday as that of volunteer ambulance driver Lior Rudaeff, who was killed in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the Gaza war.

The Israeli-Argentinian was 61 at the time of the bloody cross-border attack and one of five armed civilians killed while trying to defend his community, the Nir Yitzhak kibbutz.

His death was confirmed by Israeli authorities in May 2024 and his name was put on the list of 20 living and 28 dead former hostages that Hamas agreed to return under the terms of the October ceasefire.

Five more bodies remain to be returned: four seized in the October 7 attack -- three Israelis and one Thai -- as well as the remains of a soldier who died in combat in 2014 during a previous Gaza conflict.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a campaign group representing the Israeli families caught up in the crisis, welcomed Rudaeff's homecoming.

"Lior's return provides some measure of comfort to a family that has lived with agonising uncertainty and doubt for over two years," it said. "We will not rest until the last hostage is brought home."

The first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal brokered last month by US President Donald Trump paved the way for a hostage and prisoner exchange.

- Bombed out rubble -

Hamas quickly returned 20 surviving hostages and Israel released hundreds of Palestinian detainees.

Under the stark mathematics of the ceasefire plan, for every dead Israeli hostage returned the bodies of 15 slain Palestinians are handed back.

Accordingly, on Saturday the Nasser Medical Centre in Khan Yunis announced the "arrival of the bodies of 15 martyrs from the Gaza Strip which had been held" by Israel -- bringing the number returned to 300.

The Palestinian bodies were returned to the hospital by the Red Cross, as in previous transfers. The Palestinian remains have been returned unidentified and many have been consigned to mass graves.

Gaza's health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority, said that among the 300 Palestinian bodies received, only 89 have been identified so far.

"After initial examination, it was found that they had gunshot wounds .... and signs suggesting injuries caused by explosions," Ahmed Dhair, head of a committee to receive the bodies said, referring to the 15 corpses received on Saturday.

AFP footage showed medics at Nasser Medical Centre bringing the corpses in large white body bags.

Israel has accused Hamas of dragging its feet in returning the bodies of deceased hostages, while the Palestinian group says the process is slow because many are buried beneath Gaza's bombed-out rubble.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again demanded that Hamas "uphold its commitments" and return the last five bodies.

"We will not compromise on this and will spare no effort until we return all of the deceased hostages, every last one of them," it said.

- Mostly civilians -

Hamas's October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

The Israeli military's retaliatory campaign has since killed 69,169 Palestinians, again mostly civilians, according to Gaza's health ministry.

The ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN, does not specify the number of fighters killed within this total.

According to the Israeli army, 479 soldiers have been killed in the campaign in Gaza since the start of the ground offensive at the end of October 2023.

Y.Watanabe--JT