Israel has confirmed Hamas handed over the remains of deceased Tanzanian hostage Joshua Mollel on Wednesday under the US-brokered Gaza ceasefire deal.
The Israeli prime minister’s office said that, following the completion of forensic tests at the National Centre of Forensic Medicine, the foreign ministry had informed the 21-year-old student’s family.
Mollel was undertaking an agricultural internship in southern Israel when Hamas-led gunmen attacked on 7 October 2023. He was killed at Kibbutz Nahal Oz and his body was then taken by fighters.
His return means six deceased hostages – five Israelis and one Thai – are still in Gaza.
“The government of Israel shares in the deep sorrow of the Mollel family and all the families of the fallen hostages,” the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement on Thursday.
It also stressed that Hamas was required to return all the deceased hostages under the ceasefire deal, adding that Israeli authorities would “spare no effort until we return all of the fallen hostages, every last one of them.”
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Israel said: “Amid their grief and the knowledge that their hearts will never fully heal, Joshua’s return offers some comfort to a family that has endured unbearable uncertainty for over two years.”
Before handing over Mollel’s remains to the Red Cross in Gaza on Wednesday evening, Hamas’s military wing said that it had recovered a hostage’s body in the eastern Shejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City.
In recent days, Israel has allowed members of Hamas and Red Cross staff to search for remains in the area, which is inside territory still controlled by Israeli forces.
The body of Israel-US soldier Staff Sgt Itay Chen was found there on Tuesday.
Under the first phase of the ceasefire deal, which took effect on 10 October, Hamas agreed to return the 20 living and 28 dead Israeli and foreign hostages it was holding within 72 hours.
All the living Israeli hostages were released on 13 October in exchange for 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,718 detainees from Gaza.
Israel has handed over the bodies of 285 Palestinians in exchange for the bodies of the 19 Israeli hostages returned by Hamas, along with those of three foreign hostages – one of them Thai, one Nepalese and one Tanzanian.
Five of the six dead hostages still in Gaza are Israelis and one is Thai.
Israel has accused Hamas of deliberately delaying the recovery of the bodies, while Hamas has insisted it is struggling to find them under rubble.
The slow progress has meant there has been no advance on the second phase of President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan. This includes plans for the governance of Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli troops, the disarmament of Hamas, and reconstruction.
All but one of the dead hostages still in Gaza were among the 251 people abducted during the 7 October 2023 attack, during which about 1,200 other people were killed.
Israel responded by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 68,800 people have been killed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
