Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the remains of the last Israeli hostage in Gaza have been found.
Twenty-four year old police officer Ran Gvili was killed on October 7 2023, when Hamas launched its deadly attacks against Israel.
His body was then taken over the border into the strip, where it remained for almost two and a half years.
A major search operation was launched over the weekend with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) focusing on an area in the east of Gaza City, near the Shejaiya and Tuffa neighbourhoods, in Israeli-controlled territory.
On Monday, the IDF said Mr Gvili's remains had already been formally identified and Israeli police said they would form an honour guard for the coffin carrying their colleague as it was taken to the National Forensics Centre in Tel Aviv.
Israeli media outlets reported Mr Gvili's body was found in a cemetery in the area, where 250 bodies were tested by forensics experts before he was identified by dental records.
"This is an incredible achievement for the State of Israel," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told media on Monday afternoon local time.
"We promised, I promised to return them all and we returned them all.
"Ran is a hero of Israel — he went in first and he came out last."
Ytzik Gvili, Ran's father said he was proud of his son after his coffin arrived in Israel on Monday.
"You should see the honours we're giving you here. All the police is with with you, all the army is with you, all the people are with you. I'm proud of you my son," Mr Gvili said at a ceremony held shortly after his son's remains were returned at an Israeli military base near Gaza..
In October last year, the final 20 living Israeli hostages were released by Hamas as part of the ceasefire agreement struck with Israel.
Thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, some detained during the war and held for months without charges, were returned in exchange.
There were 28 dead Israeli hostages in Gaza at the time the ceasefire came into force, and their remains have been gradually discovered and brought back to Israel in the months since.
Israeli strikes in Gaza have continued, as it repeatedly accused Hamas of breaching the fragile truce, citing the failure to return hostages as one of its grievances.
Hamas had said it had provided intelligence as to the location of the remains, but insisted it was hamstrung in helping efforts to retrieve the bodies given many were beyond the so-called 'Yellow Line' — territory controlled by the IDF.
Palestinian health authorities in Gaza said civilians had borne the brunt of Israeli attacks in the intervening months, with more than 480 killed and more than 1,300 injured in Israeli attacks since last October.
Many of them, it said, were women and children.
Hamas, a proscribed terrorist group under Australian law, said it had "exerted significant efforts in the search for the body of the last prisoner" and that it had upheld its side of the ceasefire deal.
In a statement, it said Israel must now continue its withdrawal from the large areas of Gaza it still controls and allow the opening of the Rafah border crossing.
Hamas called on the international community to pressure Israel into acting, "now that its pretext of finding the body of the last prisoner has ended."
An Israeli group campaigning for the release of hostages said that following the return of Mr Gvili's remains, there were no hostages held in Gaza for the first time since 2014.
"We can finally say: there are no longer any hostages in Gaza," the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.
Gvili key to crossing reopening
In recent days, Mr Gvili's family had urged the Israeli government not to allow the reopening of the crossing between Egypt and Israel to reopen until his body was recovered.
Members of Netanyahu's own government had echoed those sentiments.
The Rafah crossing had been under Israeli control for many months, and is the only gateway to the war-ravaged strip which does not lead into Israeli territory.
Last week, the head of the new Palestinian technocratic government appointed by the Trump administration to run Gaza said Rafah would reopen to two-way traffic in coming days.
Hours before the announcement Mr Gvili had been found, the Prime Minister's office took to social media to outline its position, suggesting it would allow Rafah to open even if the body was unaccounted for.
"As part of President Trump's 20-point plan, Israel has agreed to a limited reopening of the Rafah Crossing for pedestrian passage only, subject to a full Israeli inspection mechanism," it posted on X.
"The reopening of the crossing was conditioned upon the return of all living hostages and a 100 per cent effort by Hamas to locate and return all deceased hostages."
"Upon completion of this operation, and in accordance with what has been agreed upon with the US, Israel will open the Rafah Crossing."
