Israeli PM vows to disarm Hamas

MEITAR, ISRAEL:

Israel on Wednesday laid to rest the last hostage from Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned at the funeral that the country’s enemies would pay a heavy price for any future aggression.

Netanyahu’s threat came as Hamas told AFP it was prepared to carry out a full transfer of governance in Gaza to a 15-member Palestinian technocratic committee established under a US-backed ceasefire plan.

Hundreds of mourners packed a stadium in southern Israel on Wednesday for the funeral of Ran Gvili, the last Gaza hostage whose burial marked the end of a painful national saga triggered by Hamas’s 2023 attack.

Israeli forces on Monday brought home the remains of Gvili, who was killed in action and whose body Palestinian militants took into Gaza during their attack.

Netanyahu warned Israel’s enemies that they would pay a heavy price if they attacked Israel.

“We are determined to complete our missions: to disarm Hamas and demilitarise Gaza, and we will succeed. Let our enemies know that anyone who raises a hand against Israel will pay an exorbitant price,” he said.

The return of the hostages from Gaza dragged on over the course of the war between Israel and Hamas in a series of ceasefire and prisoner-swap deals as well as efforts to rescue them militarily.

The most recent set of hostage handovers was part of the US-backed Gaza ceasefire deal that took effect on October 10.

The first phase of the deal stipulated the return of every hostage, and Gvili’s family had opposed moving on to the second phase before they had received his remains.

Nicknamed the “Defender of Alumim” by his family and the kibbutz of that name, Gvili was killed in combat during the October attack. AFP