Hello and welcome to the details of Thai hostage remains returned to Israel while final Gaza captive yet to come home and now with the details
Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - Islamic Jihad and Hamas militants transport a white body bag believed to carry the remains of an Israeli hostage in the town of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on December 3. — AFP pic
JERUSALEM, Dec 5 — Israel awaited the return of the last hostage remains held by Palestinian militants in Gaza, as the military said yesterday that those of a Thai national had been identified after they were handed over.
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.
Israel sent a delegation yesterday to Cairo to discuss efforts for the return of the last hostage’s remains in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
‘Profound sadness’
A few people milled around Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square yesterday morning, which became the focal point for weekly rallies throughout the war demanding the return of all the Gaza captives.
Posters bearing the faces of Gvili and Sudthisak Rinthalak, a Thai national whose remains were returned on Wednesday, were propped up alongside Israeli flags and yellow ribbons that have come to symbolise Israel’s hostage ordeal.
“We feel joy in our hearts that one more hostage has returned, but at the same time profound sadness that one is still left,” Orly, a pharmacist from Tel Aviv, told AFP.
Mirala Gal, a volunteer at the square, said “it’s our obligation to make sure that they’re all back home”.
The Israeli army said the remains of Rinthalak had been identified after they were handed over by Hamas and their allies Islamic Jihad.
He was killed on October 7, 2023 during Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel, and his body taken to the Gaza Strip, the military said.
Rinthalak was 43 years old at the time of his death and worked in agriculture. Israel officially confirmed his death in May 2024.
Last to return
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.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the Israeli government “shares in the deep sorrow of the Rinthalak family, the Thai people and all of fallen hostages’ families.”
Foreign Minister Gideon Saar spoke to his Thai counterpart on Thursday, vowing on X that Israel would grant “assistance and benefits to his family”.
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 attack that triggered the war.
He fell in battle on that day and his body was taken to Gaza.
“The first to leave, the last to return... We won’t stop until you come back,” his mother, Talik Gvili, wrote on X, alongside a photo of her son.
Militants took 251 people hostage during the October 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.
Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 70,125 people, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the UN considers reliable.
Accusations of violations
The return of Rinthalak’s body happened while the ceasefire deal, which came into effect on October 10, remained fragile, with both sides accusing each other of violating the terms.
Gaza’s civil defence agency—which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authority—told AFP on Wednesday an Israeli strike in Al-Mawasi 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.
AFP footage showed dozens of distraught mourners in the southern city of Khan Yunis on Thursday gathering to bid farewell to the dead.
Women sobbed over the white plastic bags containing the bodies of their loved ones.
“They were sleeping civilians and children... Is this Israel’s goal? To kill Palestinians?” said Raafat Abu Hussein, who had lost relatives.
“We hope the world will stand with us and end the bloodshed, so to begin the second phase of the agreement, followed by the third phase of reconstruction, so we can return to living as we did before.”
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says since the ceasefire came into effect, at least 366 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire. Israel’s military has reported three soldiers killed during the same period. — AFP
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