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JERUSALEM: Israel said on Saturday that the remains of a hostage returned from Gaza the previous night belong to an Israeli man who died while fighting Hamas in the militants’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack that started the war.
The identification marked another step forward for the tenuous, US-brokered ceasefire. The hostage body was identified as that of Lior Rudaeff, according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‘s office.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Rudaeff was born in Argentina and moved to Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, a farming community in southern Israel, as a child. He volunteered for more than 40 years as an ambulance driver and was a member of the community’s emergency response team.
The forum said he was killed in the Hamas-led attack and that his body was taken to Gaza.
Since the ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10, Palestinian militants have released the remains of 23 hostages, including Rudaeff’s body, with five still remaining in Gaza.
As part of the deal, Israel has returned the remains of 15 Palestinians for each Israeli hostage.
So far, Israel has handed over the bodies of 285 Palestinians, the Red Cross and Gaza’s Health Ministry say. Health officials in Gaza have struggled to identify the bodies without access to DNA kits and have identified 84 of the bodies.
Under the terms of the US-brokered ceasefire, Israel is supposed to allow substantially more aid into Gaza.
However, relief efforts under the pact still fall well short of what is needed in Gaza, according to Farhan Haqq, deputy spokesperson for the United Nations. More than 200,000 metric tons in aid is positioned to move into Gaza, but only 37,000 tons, mostly food, have been admitted, he said.
The 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Israel’s sweeping military offensive has killed more than 68,800 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by independent experts.