GAZA CITY, Palestine: Hamas officials have said that search operations for the remains of the last Israeli hostage held in Gaza resumed on Wednesday after a two-week pause due to bad weather.
Israel has previously said it is awaiting the return of Ran Gvili’s body before beginning talks on the second phase of the fragile ceasefire agreement with Hamas, which came into effect in October.
A Hamas official, cited by AFP, said that the Palestinian resistance movement’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, “accompanied by Red Cross teams, are resuming today search operations for the body of the last Israeli captive in the Zeitun neighbourhood in southeastern Gaza City.”
Another official, cited by AFP, said that search operations had been suspended over the past two weeks due to stormy weather and heavy rain, which had prevented excavators and other machinery from reaching Zeitun.
“The search operations resumed today, and we hope to recover the body to close the exchange file,” the official added, urging pressure on Israel to complete the first stage of the ceasefire agreement and open the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
Of the 251 people seized during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, only the body of Gvili remains in the Palestinian territory.
The Israeli group representing the families of hostages held in Gaza said in a statement that it welcomed “the pressure that led to the operational decision to resume search efforts” for Gvili’s body.
“After a difficult month of uncertainty and feeling helpless, we are deeply relieved that search teams have returned to the field,” Gvili’s parents were quoted as saying in the statement from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
Since the October 7, 2023, attack, Israel has launched a relentless bombardment campaign in Gaza, killing over 71,391 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10, nearly 422 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip, where the majority of the population continues to live in dire conditions due to the Israeli blockade. The majority of the Palestinian territory has been turned into ruins due to Israeli bombardments.
Medical sources, cited by Jordan News, said on Tuesday that over the past 48 hours, two martyrs were brought to Gaza hospitals—one of whom was recovered after being pulled from the rubble—along with 10 injured.
A number of victims remain trapped under the debris and on roads, as ambulance and civil defence crews are still unable to reach them.
