Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with the family of the last Israeli hostage whose body is still in the Gaza Strip, his office said last night, as protesters gathered in Tel Aviv demanding the return of the bodies of the two remaining hostages.
Ran Gwilyi, a 24-year-old officer in the Israeli police's elite Yasam unit, was killed in action on October 7, 2023, during an attack launched that day by the Islamist movement Hamas against Israel. The attack sparked the war in the Gaza Strip.
His body was then transferred to Palestinian territory.
The prime minister informed "his parents, Talic and Itzik, of Israel's efforts to secure his return and of its determination to return him for a Jewish burial in accordance with Jewish rites," his office said.
Netanyahu also spoke with the Thai ambassador to Israel, Bunyarit Wichienpuntu, to update him on efforts to repatriate another hostage who was killed and still in Gaza, Thai citizen Sudtisak Rintalak, the statement added.
Rintalak, 43, worked on plantations in a kibbutz near the Gaza Strip. He was among the Thai farm workers killed in the October 7 attack whose bodies were transferred to Gaza.
His death was confirmed by Israel in May 2024.
After two years of war, a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, brokered by the US, came into effect on October 10th.
Under the agreement, the Palestinian Islamist movement was to return 48 hostages it was holding, 20 of whom are alive. So far, 46 have been handed over.
The Hostage Families Forum, the main Israeli organization fighting for the return of the captives, held a rally in Tel Aviv tonight, the latest in a series of Sunday demonstrations aimed at pressuring the government to release all hostages.
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