 "Israel receives body of one of the final four Gaza hostages")
Israel received the body of one of the last four hostages held in Gaza from the Red Cross on Thursday as part of the ceasefire deal with Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.
The coffin was handed over in the Gaza Strip to the Israeli army and Shin Bet security service, the office said.
It later said forensics experts had confirmed the body was that of Israeli hostage Meny Godard, killed at age 73 the day of the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The Israeli military informed Godard’s family that “their loved one has been returned to Israel and that his identification has been completed”, Netanyahu’s office said.
Earlier on Thursday, the armed wings of Palestinian Islamist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad had said they would hand over the remains as part of the US-brokered ceasefire deal with Israel in Gaza.
Hamas said the body was found in Khan Yunis in the south of the territory.
At the start of the truce, which came into effect on October 10, Hamas was holding 20 living hostages and 28 bodies of deceased captives.
It has since released all the living hostages and before Thursday had returned the remains of 24 dead hostages, in line with the ceasefire terms.
In exchange, Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in its custody and returned the bodies of hundreds of dead Palestinians.
Israel has accused Hamas of dragging its feet in returning the bodies of deceased hostages, while the Palestinian group says the process is slow because many are buried beneath Gaza’s rubble after two years of war.
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