The Israeli army said that it identified the body delivered from Gaza as that of Argentine Israeli Lior Rodev.
The military said the 61-year-old was killed while trying to defend Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak during a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and his body was transported to Gaza by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad said that the body was found on Friday in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Hamas has now returned all 20 living hostages and 23 of the 28 dead hostages under the first phase of the ceasefire agreement that began on October 10. Four of the five hostages still in Gaza are Israeli and one is Thai.
Israel criticized Hamas for not returning all the bodies yet. Hamas says it is difficult to find them under the rubble.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad is an armed group allied with Hamas. It participated in the October 7 attack and previously held some Israeli hostages.
The Forum of Hostages and Missing Families welcomed the return.
“Lior’s return provides a measure of comfort to a family that has lived in a state of uncertainty and painful doubts for more than two years,” she said in a statement. “We will not rest until the last hostage is brought home.”
During the first phase of the US-brokered ceasefire agreement, Israel released 250 Palestinian prisoners in its prisons and 1,718 detainees from Gaza.
Israel also handed over the bodies of 300 Palestinians in exchange for the bodies of the 20 Israeli hostages returned by Hamas, in addition to the bodies of three foreign hostages – one of them Thai, Nepalese and Tanzanian.
The military wing of Hamas stood ready as it searched for the bodies of the hostages on November 5 [MOHAMMED SABER/EPA/Shutterstock]
The two sides also agreed to increase aid to the Gaza Strip, a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces, and a cessation of fighting, although violence erupted as both sides accused each other of violating the agreement.
Israel launched air strikes after accusing Hamas fighters of doing so Killing two of its soldiers on October 19 And who Killing another soldier on October 28. Hamas said it was not aware of the clashes that took place in the area of the first incident and had no connection to the second attack.
Israeli military operations have killed at least 241 people since the ceasefire began, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, whose figures the United Nations considers reliable.
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the October 7, 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 251 others hostage. All but one of the dead hostages still in Gaza were kidnapped in the attack.
The Health Ministry reported that at least 69,169 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then.