Israel marks return of final Gaza hostage remains as ceasefire enters a harder phase

Israel on Tuesday marked the return and identification of the remains of Ran Gvili, a 24-year-old police officer killed during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack and later taken into Gaza. Israeli officials described Gvili as the last hostage still held there, bringing to an end a long national countdown that had become a public symbol of grief, pressure on leaders, and the unfinished business of the war.

In Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, Israelis gathered around displays tracking the passage of time since the 2023 attack; the public ritual of counting days has shaped political debate for more than two years. The return of remains, Israeli officials and mediators say, closes the first phase of a U.S.-backed ceasefire arrangement that prioritized bringing hostages home—living or dead—alongside prisoner releases and other confidence measures.

The Israeli government indicated the recovery clears the way for a more complicated second phase, where the bargaining shifts from discrete exchanges to strategic questions: border access, longer-term security arrangements, reconstruction, and who governs Gaza. One expected early move is steps toward reopening the Rafah border crossing with Egypt for limited pedestrian travel, which Palestinians have described as a critical connection to the outside world after years of blockade, conflict and displacement.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in remarks cited by AP, pointed toward contentious conditions that could define the next round of talks, including demands that Hamas disarm and that the group’s tunnel network be dismantled before major reconstruction proceeds. Those demands collide with Hamas’s historic refusal to surrender core military capabilities, setting up a high-stakes negotiation in which each side may view concessions as existential.

The recovery itself involved a long forensic and intelligence effort, with searches and identification work that Israeli officials say required sensitive coordination. The broader ceasefire has not stopped violence entirely, and humanitarian conditions in Gaza remain dire, with infrastructure shattered, medical capacity limited, and large numbers of displaced people living in precarious circumstances.

Even with the hostage chapter formally closing, the politics of the war are not. Israelis remain divided about whether military goals, deterrence and security can be squared with international pressure to accelerate aid flows and pursue a durable settlement. Palestinians, meanwhile, face uncertainty about the extent of movement through Rafah, the pace of reconstruction, and whether any future security force or governance plan can take root amid mistrust and continued instability.