TEL AVIV, January 26. /TASS/. The body of the last Israeli hostage has been returned from the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

"Following the completion of the identification process by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, in cooperation with the Israel Police and the Military Rabbinate, IDF representatives informed the family of the deceased hostage Sergeant First Class Ran Gvili, that their loved one has been identified and will be returned for burial," it said.

Ran Gvili was killed on October 23, 2023, when armed Palestinian radicals attacked Israel, and his body was abducted to the Gaza Strip.

"With this, all hostages have been returned from the Gaza Strip to the State of Israel," it stressed.

Gvili was the last Israeli national whose body was held in the Gaza Strip although his remains were to be handed over to Israel as part of phase one on the Gaza ceasefire agreement. Israeli authorities repeatedly warned that further settlement in Gaza would be impossible until Gvili’s body was returned to Israel.

On January 25, the IDF announced an operation to locate and recover Gvili’s remains. On that same day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announed a decision to open the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt in limited capacity and under full Israeli control after the remains of the last hostage are found and returned to Israel.

Tensions flared up in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian movement Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing residents of border settlements and taking more than 250 hostages. In response, Israel initiated a military operation in the Palestinian enclave to dismantle Hamas' military and political structures and free all hostages.

Israel and Hamas resumed Egypt-, Qatar-, United States-, and Turkey-mediated indirect talks on settling the situation in the Gaza Strip on October 6. On October 9, the parties to the conflict signed an agreement on the implementation of phase one of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan. The ceasefire came into effect on October 10. Under the agreement, Israeli troops withdrew to the so-called Yellow Line but retained control over more than 50% of the enclave’s territory. On October 13, Hamas and other Palestinian groups released all 20 living hostages and began handing over the bodies of 28 deceased hostages under the Gaza ceasefire deal.