Israel has confirmed that Hamas handed over the remains of Tanzanian hostage Joshua Mollel on Wednesday under the US-brokered Gaza ceasefire deal.
In a statement on Thursday, the Israeli prime minister’s office said that following forensic examinations at the National Center for Forensic Medicine, the Foreign Ministry had notified Mollel’s family.
The 21-year-old Tanzanian student was doing an agricultural internship in southern Israel when gunmen led by Hamas attacked Kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7, 2023, killing him and taking his body to Gaza.
His return brings to six the number of deceased hostages still held in Gaza: five Israelis and one Thai.
“The government of Israel shares the deep sorrow of the Mollel family and all the families of the fallen hostages,” the prime minister’s office said, noting that Hamas is obligated under the ceasefire agreement to return all the deceased hostages.
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The Hostage and Missing Families Forum welcomed the recovery and said Mollel’s return “offers some comfort to a family that has endured unbearable uncertainty for more than two years.”
Before the handover, Hamas’ military wing said it had found the hostage’s body in Shejaiya, an area of Gaza City still under Israeli military control.
Israel has recently allowed Hamas and Red Cross teams to search the area for remains. The body of an Israeli-American soldier, Sergeant Itay Chen, was also recovered there on Tuesday.
In the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, Hamas agreed to return 20 live hostages and 28 dead hostages within 72 hours in exchange for 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,718 detainees.
Israel has since returned 285 Palestinian bodies in exchange for the bodies of 19 Israeli hostages and three foreigners, including Mollel.
Negotiations on the second phase of President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, covering governance, troop withdrawal and reconstruction, remain stalled as Hamas says it is having difficulty locating more bodies under the rubble.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, more than 68,800 people have been killed since Israel’s retaliatory offensive began following the 2023 attacks that left around 1,200 people dead in Israel.
(BBC News)
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