The remains of Tanzanian agricultural student Joshua Luito Mollel, who was abducted and killed during Hamas’s Oct. 7 assault, were identified overnight Wednesday at Israel’s National Center for Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv, officials said.
Mollel’s body was transferred to Israel late Wednesday after Hamas said it had located the remains during searches in the Shijaiyah neighborhood of Gaza City. According to the Prime Minister’s Office, his identification was completed in cooperation with the Israel Police and the military rabbinate.
Six slain hostages are still held in Gaza — five Israelis and one foreign national.
Mollel, 21, was one of dozens of Tanzanian students who arrived in Israel in September 2023 for agricultural training at the Kibbutz-based Arava International Center for Agricultural Training program. He was living at Kibbutz Nahal Oz when Hamas terrorists stormed the community on Oct. 7.
A fellow Tanzanian student, Owisius Helmangrid Kalehops, later recounted that he tried for hours to reach Mollel that morning. “I called our dairy manager in Nahal Oz and asked about Joshua,” he said. “He told me people went to check on him, but there was no one left in the cowshed.”
Two months later, Israeli officials informed Mollel’s father, Luito, that his son had been murdered and that Hamas was holding his body in Gaza. The family initially struggled to accept the news. Days later, videos circulated on social media showing Mollel’s killing and his body being taken into Gaza.
The Tanzanian government expressed condolences at the time, saying Mollel had traveled to Israel “to study, learn and build a better future” and was tragically caught in the Oct. 7 massacre.
Among the seven hostages who remained unreturned until this week were two foreign nationals — Mollel and Rintalak Suttisak, a 43-year-old farm worker from Thailand who was killed near Kibbutz Be’eri and abducted to Gaza. Thai officials confirmed his death in May 2024.
In its statement Thursday, the Israeli government said it “shares in the deep sorrow of the Mollel family and of all the families of the fallen hostages,” adding that the state “remains determined and committed to bringing all hostages, living and dead, home for proper burial.”
First published: 08:44, 11.06.25