Overview
- The Israel Defense Forces said they located and identified the body of the final remaining hostage in Gaza, an Israeli police officer killed in Hamas’s October 2023 cross-border attack and taken into the enclave.
- Troops conducted a large-scale search over recent days focused on a cemetery area in eastern Gaza City to recover the remains.
- Israeli authorities said the Rafah crossing will reopen once the recovery operation is completed with passage limited to pedestrians and all movement subject to full Israeli inspections, with vehicles barred.
- Hamas’s military spokesman said the group provided mediators with all details it held about the body’s likely location, which Israel used to guide searches.
- U.S. envoys pressed for reopening Rafah as part of a wider plan for Gaza, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that demilitarization takes precedence over reconstruction and Israeli strikes and humanitarian pressures continue.