Israel has confirmed that Hamas returned the body of Tanzanian hostage Joshua Mollel on Wednesday as part of the US-mediated Gaza ceasefire agreement.
The 21-year-old student, who was completing an agricultural internship in southern Israel, was killed during a Hamas attack on Kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7, 2023. His body had been taken by militants at the time.
Following forensic examinations at the National Centre of Forensic Medicine, Israel’s foreign ministry notified Mollel’s family. The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office expressed its condolences to the family and reaffirmed its commitment to recovering all remaining deceased hostages under the ceasefire deal.
Currently, six deceased hostages—five Israelis and one Thai—remain in Gaza. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said that while the Mollel family’s grief is profound, the return of Joshua’s remains offers some solace after more than two years of uncertainty.
Hamas’s military wing confirmed the recovery of a hostage’s body from eastern Shejaiya in Gaza City, before handing it over to the Red Cross. In recent days, Israel has allowed Red Cross officials and Hamas representatives to conduct searches in areas still under Israeli control. The body of Israel-US soldier Staff Sgt. Itay Chen was also recovered from this region on Tuesday.
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