Israel says body of Lior Rudaeff has been returned from Gaza

The Israeli army announced that it determined that a body delivered from Gaza belonged to Israeli-Argentinian Lior Rudaeff.

The military said the 61-year-old was killed while trying to defend the Nir Yitzhak kibbutz during a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and his body was taken to Gaza by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) armed group.

The body was found Friday in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, PIJ said.

Hamas returned all 20 living hostages and 23 of the 28 dead hostages as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement that began on October 10. Of the five hostages currently in Gaza, four are Israeli and one is Thai.

Israel criticized Hamas for not yet returning all the bodies. Hamas says it is difficult to find them under the rubble.

PIJ is an armed group allied with Hamas. He took part in the October 7 attack and had previously taken some Israelis hostage.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a campaign group, welcomed the return.

“Lior’s return provides some comfort to a family that has lived with painful uncertainty and doubt for over two years,” the statement said. “We will not rest until the last hostage is brought home.”

In the first phase of the US-brokered ceasefire agreement, Israel released 250 Palestinian prisoners in its prisons and 1,718 detainees in Gaza.

Israel also handed over the bodies of 285 Palestinians in exchange for the bodies of 19 Israeli hostages returned by Hamas and the bodies of three foreign hostages, one Thai, one Nepali and one Tanzanian.

The parties also agreed to increase aid to the Gaza Strip, partial withdrawal of Israeli forces and cessation of hostilities; But violence flared when both sides accused each other of violating the agreement.

Israel launches air strikes after blaming Hamas fighters He killed two of his soldiers on October 19 And Killing of another soldier on 28 October. Hamas said it was unaware of clashes in the first incident area and had no connection with the second attack.

Israeli military operations have killed at least 241 people since the beginning of the ceasefire, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.

The Israeli military launched an operation in Gaza in response to an October 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel in which Hamas-led gunmen killed nearly 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. In the attack, all but one of the dead hostages still in Gaza were kidnapped.

The health ministry reported that at least 68,875 people have died in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then.