The Japan Times - Israel awaits return of last hostage remains from Gaza

Under the first phase of the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, militants were due to return all 48 hostages they held captive, 20 of whom were still alive.

All but the remains of Israeli Ran Gvili have since been handed over, though Israel has accused the Palestinian militants of dragging their feet on returning bodies.

Hamas has said the process of retrieving the remains has been slow because they have been buried under the vast piles of rubble left by two years of devastating war.

The Israeli military said on Thursday that the remains of Sudthisak Rinthalak had been identified after they were handed over by Hamas and their allies Islamic Jihad a day earlier.

The Thai national was killed on October 7, 2023 and his body taken to the Gaza Strip and held, the army said.

He was 43 years old at the time of his death and worked in agriculture.

Israel officially confirmed his death in May 2024.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main group representing those taken captive to Gaza, said the return of Rinthalak offered some long-awaited solace for his family.

"Amid their grief and the knowledge that their hearts will never fully heal, Sudthisak's return offers some comfort to a family that has endured unbearable uncertainty for over two years," the group said in a statement.

"We will not rest until every hostage comes home."

In a statement on X, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli government "shares in the deep sorrow of the Rinthalak family, the Thai people and all of fallen hostages' families."

The last hostage body held in Gaza is Ran Gvili, an officer in Israel's Yasam elite police unit who was 24 at the time of Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war.

He fell in battle on that day and his body taken to Gaza.

Militants took 251 people hostage during Hamas's October 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.

Israel's retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 70,117 people, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the UN considers reliable.

- 'Blatant violation' -

Under the first phase of the ceasefire deal which came into effect on October 10, Palestinian militants have handed over the last 20 living hostages, and so far, the remains of 27 out of the 28 deceased.

In exchange, Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in its custody and returned the bodies of hundreds of dead Palestinians.

The return of Rinthalak's body came while the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas remained fragile, with both sides accusing each other of violating the terms.

Gaza's civil defence agency told AFP on Wednesday that an Israeli strike in the south of the Palestinian territory killed five people including two children.

The Israeli military said it had struck a Hamas militant in southern Gaza in response to a clash with Palestinian fighters in the area that wounded five soldiers.

"Five citizens, including two children, killed and others injured, some seriously, as a result of an Israeli missile strike" in Al-Mawasi, west of Khan Yunis, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

The Kuwaiti Field Hospital in Khan Yunis also reported that five people, including two children aged eight and 10, were killed and another 32 were wounded.

The Israeli military accused Hamas of a "blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement", saying militants attacked troops deployed in the Rafah area of southern Gaza on Wednesday.

The city lies within the area, bounded by the so-called Yellow Line, to which Israeli troops have withdrawn.

In a statement, Hamas said Israel's retaliatory bombing in Khan Yunis "constitutes a clear war crime, a disregard for the ceasefire agreement, and an exposed attempt to evade its obligations."

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says since the ceasefire came into effect, at least 360 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire. Israel's military has reported three soldiers killed during the same period.

T.Ikeda--JT