Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas announced Thursday afternoon that they will hand over at 8 p.m. a hostage's body, which the terror groups say was located this morning during searches south of Khan Younis. The announcement comes four days after the last time a body was returned to Israel — then it was soldier Hadar Goldin, who was repatriated after nearly eleven and a half years of captivity in the Gaza Strip.
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The four remaining hostages held in Gaza
(Photos: Police spokeswoman, courtesy of the family, Blue Ribbons)
Since the middle of last month, when the last 20 living hostages were released from captivity, Israel has entered a turbulent period — on one hand countless embraces, tears of joy and emotion for those who returned alive, and simultaneously funerals, grief and days filled with disappointment and deep fear of being left behind and forgotten. With the burial in Israel of Hadar Goldin at the beginning of the week, there remain in the Gaza Strip four dead hostages: Second Sergeant Ran Gvily, Manny Goddard, Dror Or and Thai citizen Sontisek Rintalk.
The families hold the same hope: that the State and the public will not stop accompanying them, and will not allow the issue to be erased and disappear from public discourse and the political agenda. “Until it’s not over it’s not over,” said Elad Or, brother of dead hostage Dror.
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Hamas and the Red Cross are working to locate dead hostages in eastern Gaza City
(Photo: Jehand Alshrafi/AP)
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 have no way to describe how each of the returned hostages brings air to our lungs.”
Shira Gvily, sister of Ran, describes a difficult reality. “This is the most absurd and expected situation in the world. I knew we would be among the last, but I didn’t know how much," she said. "It’s the fear of being left behind that accompanies the thoughts all the time. I already ran out of words. Living in a lack of energy. I felt internally that he would be one of the last. Because not a lot is known about him.”
The family of Sontisek Rintalk, a resident of Nong Khai Province in Thailand, say he was “the pillar of the household." He came to Israel in 2017 together with friends, with the aim of working in agriculture and helping his elderly parents. On October 7 he was killed in a plantation near Kibbutz Be’eri and taken hostage; he was 43 at his death.