JERUSALEM: Israel on Sunday announced the identity of one of two dead hostages returned by Hamas the previous day as 54-year-old Ronen Engel.
The military “informed the family of hostage Ronen Engel … that their loved one has been returned to Israel and his identification has been completed,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
Israel would spare no effort “until all the fallen hostages are repatriated,” it added.
Engel, a resident of Nir Oz kibbutz, was abducted from his home and killed by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and his body taken to Gaza. The Israeli army announced his death on December 1, 2023.
He was one of two dead hostages returned by Hamas on Saturday as delays in finding bodies buried under the rubble of Gaza threaten the fragile ceasefire.
Engel’s wife, Karina Engel-Bart, and their teenagers Mika and Yuval were abducted as the family hid in their safe room. His family were later freed during the first truce.
Engel was a photojournalist and volunteer ambulance driver for Magen David Adom (MADA), the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross in the southern Negev region.
Under a US-brokered ceasefire agreement, Hamas has returned all 20 surviving hostages and the remains of 12 deceased ones.
Under the terms of the agreement, Hamas was to hand over all of the hostages, dead and alive, before Monday at 0900 GMT.
Hamas has said it needs time and technical assistance to recover the remaining bodies from under Gaza’s rubble.
![]()
Israel identifies dead hostage returned Saturday
Short Url
https://arab.news/2vwkn
Israel identifies dead hostage returned Saturday
- Ronen Engel, a resident of Nir Oz kibbutz, was abducted from his home and killed by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and his body taken to Gaza
Landmine explosion in Sudan kills 9, including 3 children
KHARTOUM: A land mine explosion killed nine people in Sudan on Sunday, including three children, as they were riding in an auto-rickshaw along a road in the frontline region of Kordofan, a medical source told AFP.
The war between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which began in April 2023, has left Sudan strewn with mines and unexploded ordnance, though the explosive that caused Sunday’s deaths could also have dated back to previous rebellions that have shaken South Kordofan state since 2011.
“Nine people, three of them children, were killed by a mine explosion while they were in a tuk-tuk,” a medical source at Al-Abbasiya hospital said.
The vehicle was reduced to “a metal carcass,” witness Abdelbagi Issa told AFP by phone.
“We were walking behind the tuk-tuk along the road to the market when we heard the sound of an explosion,” he said. “People fell to the ground and the tuk-tuk was destroyed.”
Kordofan has become the center of fighting in the nearly three-year war ever since the RSF forced the army out of its last foothold in the neighboring Darfur region late last year.
Since it broke out, Sudan’s civil war has killed tens of thousands of people and forced 11 million to flee their homes, triggering a dire humanitarian crisis.
It has also effectively split the country in two, with the army holding the north, center and east while the RSF and its allies control the west and parts of the south.
The war between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which began in April 2023, has left Sudan strewn with mines and unexploded ordnance, though the explosive that caused Sunday’s deaths could also have dated back to previous rebellions that have shaken South Kordofan state since 2011.
“Nine people, three of them children, were killed by a mine explosion while they were in a tuk-tuk,” a medical source at Al-Abbasiya hospital said.
The vehicle was reduced to “a metal carcass,” witness Abdelbagi Issa told AFP by phone.
“We were walking behind the tuk-tuk along the road to the market when we heard the sound of an explosion,” he said. “People fell to the ground and the tuk-tuk was destroyed.”
Kordofan has become the center of fighting in the nearly three-year war ever since the RSF forced the army out of its last foothold in the neighboring Darfur region late last year.
Since it broke out, Sudan’s civil war has killed tens of thousands of people and forced 11 million to flee their homes, triggering a dire humanitarian crisis.
It has also effectively split the country in two, with the army holding the north, center and east while the RSF and its allies control the west and parts of the south.
Latest updates
© 2026 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.