The Red Cross has retrieved the body of an Israeli hostage and transferred the remains to the IDF, after Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad said they located them earlier Thursday during searches south of Khan Younis. The convoy carrying the body has crossed the Israeli border and is now being taken to the National Center of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv.
The announcement comes four days after the last time a body was returned to Israel, when the remains of Lt. Hadar Goldin were repatriated after nearly eleven and a half years in captivity in Gaza.
The IDF said in an official statement that “according to the information received, the Red Cross is on its way to a meeting point in the southern Strip, where the coffin of a dead hostage will be transferred into its care.” The statement added, “The IDF asks the public to act with sensitivity and wait for the official identification that will first be provided to the families of the hostages. Hamas must abide by the agreement and make every effort necessary to return the bodies of the hostages.”
Since the middle of last month, when the last 20 living hostages were released, Israel has entered a turbulent and emotional period: on one hand, countless embraces, tears of joy and relief for those who returned alive; on the other, funerals, grief and the deep fear among families of being left behind and forgotten.
With Goldin’s burial in Israel earlier this week, four dead hostages remain in the Gaza Strip: Second Sergeant Ran Gvily, Manny Goddard, Dror Or, and Thai citizen Sontisek Rintalk.
The families share a single hope: that the State and the public will continue to stand with them and will not allow the issue to fade from public discourse or the political agenda. “Until it’s not over, it’s not over,” said Elad Or, brother of Dror.
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The four remaining hostages held in Gaza
(Photos: Israel Police, courtesy of the family, Blue Ribbons)
Bar Goddard, daughter of Manny, said this week, “It feels like a storm of emotions. On one hand, every person who returns is a piece of our heart that comes back. I cannot describe how each returned hostage brings air back into our lungs.”
Shira Gvily, sister of Ran, described a draining emotional reality. “This is the most absurd and predictable situation. I knew we would be among the last, but I did not know how much. It’s the fear of being left behind that is always there. I have run out of words. We live without energy. Inside, I felt he would be one of the last, because so little is known about him.”
The family of Sontisek Rintalk, from Nong Khai Province in Thailand, said he was “the pillar of the household.” He came to Israel in 2017 with friends to work in agriculture and support his elderly parents. On October 7 he was murdered in a plantation near Kibbutz Be’eri and taken hostage. He was 43.