{"id":131087,"date":"2025-10-19T00:20:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T00:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/131087\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T00:20:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T00:20:22","slug":"israel-identifies-remains-of-one-more-hostage-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/131087\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel identifies remains of one more hostage \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The remains of another Israeli<\/a> hostage handed over by Hamas<\/a> have been identified as those of Eliyahu Margalit, officials said. The news was followed on Saturday with confirmation Gaza\u2019s Rafah border crossing with Egypt will reopen on Monday, according to the Palestinian embassy in Egypt.<\/p>\n

The crossing, which has been largely closed since May 2024, will allow Palestinians residing in Egypt return to Gaza, the embassy said in a statement. It did not say whether humanitarian aid would also be allowed to pass through the crossing.<\/p>\n

Since the halt to two years of devastating war, around 560 metric tons of food have entered the Gaza Strip per day on average \u2013 still well below the scale of need, according to the UN World Food Programme.<\/p>\n

The crossing was shut to aid after Israeli forces seized the Gaza side in May 2024, but was briefly reopened in early 2025 during a short-lived ceasefire between the two sides.<\/p>\n

In August, a global hunger monitor declared famine was unfolding in Gaza City in the enclave\u2019s north. Israel dismissed the findings as false and biased.<\/p>\n

The identification of Mr Margalit\u2019s remains comes at a time when Hamas says it is looking for more bodies under the rubble in the Gaza Strip<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s prime minister\u2019s office said on Saturday that Mr Margalit\u2019s body was identified after testing by the National Centre for Forensic Medicine and his family has been notified.<\/p>\n

The 76-year-old was abducted on October 7th, 2023 from the horse stables where he worked in Kibbutz Nir Oz, when Hamas attacked Israel.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Israel to ramp up pressure on Hamas over return of dead hostagesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\"DwellingsDwellings in Khan Younis have been completely destroyed. Photograph: AP <\/p>\n

Mr Margalit\u2019s body is the 10th to be returned since a US-brokered ceasefire came into effect more than a week ago.<\/p>\n

Hamas handed over an 11th body this week, but it was not that of a hostage. The effort to find the remains followed a warning from US president Donald Trump that he would greenlight Israel to resume the war if Hamas does not live up to its end of the deal and return all hostages\u2019 bodies, totalling 28.<\/p>\n

The hostage forum, which supports the families of those abducted, said Mr Margalit\u2019s return brings a measure of solace to his family, but that they will not rest until the remaining 18 hostages come home.<\/p>\n

The forum says it will continue holding weekly rallies until all remains are returned.<\/p>\n

The handover of hostages\u2019 remains, called for under the ceasefire agreement, has been among the key sticking points \u2013 along with aid deliveries, the opening of border crossings into Gaza and hopes for reconstruction \u2013 in a process backed by much of the international community to help end two years of devastating war in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Hamas has said it is committed to the terms of the ceasefire deal, including the handover of bodies.<\/p>\n

However, the retrieval of bodies is being hampered by the scope of the devastation and the presence of dangerous, unexploded ordnance. The group has also told mediators that some bodies are in areas controlled by Israeli troops.<\/p>\n

Mr Margalit\u2019s body was found after two bulldozers ploughed up pits in the earth in the city of Khan Younis.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Hamas had also urged mediators to increase the flow of aid into Gaza, expedite the opening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and start reconstruction of the battered territory.<\/p>\n

The flow of aid remains constrained because of continued closures of crossings and restrictions on aid groups.<\/p>\n

United Nations (UN) data on Friday showed 339 trucks have been offloaded for distribution in Gaza since the ceasefire began a week ago. Under the agreement, some 600 humanitarian aid trucks would be allowed to enter each day.<\/p>\n

\"IsraeliIsraeli hostage Omri Miran, left, was welcomed home at Kibbutz Kramim. Photograph: AP <\/p>\n

Cogat, the Israeli defence body overseeing aid in Gaza, reported 950 trucks \u2013 including commercial trucks and bilateral deliveries \u2013 crossing on Thursday and 716 on Wednesday, the UN said<\/p>\n

Gaza\u2019s more than two million people are hoping the ceasefire will bring relief from the humanitarian disaster caused by Israel\u2019s offensive. Throughout the war, Israel restricted aid entry to Gaza \u2013 sometimes halting it altogether.<\/p>\n

Famine was declared in Gaza City, and the UN says it has verified more than 400 people who died of malnutrition-related causes, including more than 100 children.<\/p>\n

Officials in Israel say they have let in enough food, accusing Hamas of stealing much of it. The UN and other aid agencies deny this claim.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians, said the health ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government in the territory.<\/p>\n

Its figures are seen as a reliable estimate of wartime deaths by UN agencies and many independent experts. Israel has disputed these, without providing its own toll.<\/p>\n

Thousands more people are missing, said the Red Cross. \u2013 AP and Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The remains of another Israeli hostage handed over by Hamas have been identified as those of Eliyahu Margalit,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,3761,69,6,19,17,71,3857,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-131087","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-gaza-strip","14":"tag-hamas","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-israel","19":"tag-israel-hamas-conflict","20":"tag-latest-news","21":"tag-latestnews","22":"tag-main-news","23":"tag-mainnews","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}