Body of last Israeli hostage with US citizenship returned from Gaza

The Palestinian group Hamas has handed over the body of an Israeli hostage to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the Gaza Strip, the movement’s military wing, the Izzeddin al-Qassam Brigades, announced on its Telegram channel on Wednesday, November 5.

According to the statement, the body belonged to 19-year-old Staff Sgt. Itay Chen, who served in a tank unit at the Israel Defense Forces’ Nahal Oz base. He was killed by Hamas militants during their attack on October 7, 2023, and his body was taken to Gaza. Chen was identified as the last deceased hostage with US citizenship to have remained in captivity in the enclave.

“As part of the agreement on the exchange of [Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners], we decided to hand over [to medics] the hostage’s remains, which were discovered today in the al-Shuja'iyya neighborhood,” the al-Qassam Brigades said in the statement. The ICRC confirmed that it received the body in Gaza at around 9 p.m. local time.

On October 9, Israel and Hamas, with mediation from Egypt, Qatar, the US, and Türkiye, reached an agreement to implement the first phase of a peace plan proposed by US President Donald Trump. The ceasefire outlined in Trump’s plan came into force on October 10.

As part of that agreement, Hamas released 20 surviving Israeli hostages on October 13 and handed over the remains of four deceased captives. Israeli officials, however, expressed dissatisfaction that only four bodies were returned out of a total of 28. In the following days, Hamas transferred several more bodies of deceased hostages to Israel.

To date, militants in the Gaza Strip have returned the remains of 21 dead hostages. As of November 5, they continue to hold the bodies of seven more abducted individuals.

Earlier under the same agreement, all surviving hostages were freed, while Israel released approximately 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

By Tamilla Hasanova