Latest hostage remains returned from Gaza identified as Israeli man

A Red Cross vehicle carrying the body of a person believed to be a deceased hostage (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP)

Israel said on Saturday that the remains of a hostage returned from Gaza the previous night belong to an Israeli man who died while fighting Hamas in the militants’ October 7 2023 attack that started the war.

The identification marked another step forward for the tenuous, US-brokered ceasefire. The body was identified as that of Lior Rudaeff, according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.