Israel confirms identity of hostage body returned by Hamas as Manny Godard

Israel has identified the body of the hostage returned by Hamas on Thursday as that of Meny Godard, who was 73 years old when he was killed in the October 7 attacks.

Red Cross vehicles collected his body just hours after Hamas issued a joint statement with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad saying the body had been found in the Khan Younis district in southern Gaza.

The Israeli prime minister’s office said forensic tests confirmed that it belonged to Godard, who was killed along with his wife Ayelet during a Hamas raid on kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, 2023.

Three of the 28 hostages who died remained in Gaza with the first phase of the current ceasefire agreement, which forms part of the US plan to end the Gaza war.

According to the ceasefire agreement, Hamas agreed to return 20 living and 28 dead hostages.

All living Israeli hostages were released on 13 October in exchange for 250 Palestinian detainees and 1,718 Gaza detainees.

Israel agreed to hand over the remains of 15 Palestinians in exchange for each dead Israeli hostage returned. However, since there is no DNA testing in Gaza, it is difficult to detect them.

Hamas took 251 people hostage in the deadly attack it launched in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and 1,200 people died in this attack.

More than 69,000 Palestinians were killed during Israel’s retaliatory response, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, which the UN considers credible.

Of the three bodies currently found in Gaza, two are Israeli and one is Thai.

Israel accused Hamas of deliberately delaying the recovery of the hostages’ bodies, but Hamas said it had difficulty finding them under the rubble.

Slow progress means no progress has been made on the second phase of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan.

This includes the administration of Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli troops, the disarmament of Hamas, and the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.