JERUSALEM: Israel on Thursday said the remains handed over by Hamas a day earlier belonged to Joshua Loitu Mollel, a Tanzanian student whose body was taken to Gaza after he was killed in the October 7, 2023 attack.
Hamas returned the remains on Wednesday as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump.
“Following the completion of the identification process... the ministry of foreign affairs informed the family of the abducted fallen hostage, Joshua Loitu Mollel... that their loved one has been returned,” the prime minister’s office said.
The Israeli military also confirmed Mollel’s identity in a separate statement.
Mollel’s remains are the 22nd set handed over by Hamas since a ceasefire took effect on October 10.
At the start of the truce, Hamas held 48 hostages in Gaza — 20 alive and 28 deceased.
The militants have since released all the surviving captives.
The 22 repatriated bodies include 19 Israelis, one Thai national, one Nepali and Mollel.
“Amid their grief and the knowledge that their hearts will never fully heal, Joshua’s return offers some comfort to a family that has endured unbearable uncertainty for over two years,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.
Mollel, aged 21 at the time of the attack, had been in Israel on an agricultural internship program.
The Tanzanian government announced in December 2023 that Mollel had been killed in the October 7 attack and his body taken into Gaza.
His father, Loitu Mollel, told AFP in October 2023 that his son had been living at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, a collective farm village near the Gaza Strip.
The eldest of five children, he was described by his father as “polite, obedient and serious” about his work.
After earning a diploma in agricultural studies from a college in Morogoro, eastern Tanzania, Mollel traveled to Israel in September 2023 to begin his internship.
Another fellow intern was also killed in the attack, while a third survived.
Israel has accused Hamas of dragging its feet in returning the bodies of deceased hostages, while the Palestinian group says the process is slow because many are buried beneath Gaza’s rubble.
The group has repeatedly called on mediators and the Red Cross to provide it with the necessary equipment and personnel to recover the bodies.
Israel says hostage remains returned from Gaza belong to Tanzanian student
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Israel says hostage remains returned from Gaza belong to Tanzanian student
- Hamas returned the remains on Wednesday as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump
Lebanon urges UNSC delegation to press Israel to respect ceasefire
- Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon and has also maintained troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems strategic
BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urged a United Nations Security Council delegation on Friday to pressure Israel to respect a year-old ceasefire and to support his army’s efforts to disarm Hezbollah.
Despite a November 2024 ceasefire that was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group, Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon and has also maintained troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems strategic.
Aoun “stressed the need to pressure the Israeli side to implement the ceasefire and withdraw, and expressed his hope for pressure from the delegation,” according to a statement from the presidency.
He also noted “Lebanon’s commitment to implementing international resolutions” and asked the envoys to support the Lebanese army’s efforts to disarm non-government groups.
The Lebanese government ordered its military to fully disarm Hezbollah in August, and the army expects to complete the first phase of its plan by the end of the year.
The UN delegation visited Damascus on Thursday and after its meeting with Aoun was due to inspect the border area in southern Lebanon on Saturday, accompanied by US envoy Morgan Ortagus.
The visit comes as Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives held their first direct talks in decades.
On Thursday, Information Minister Paul Morcos quoted Aoun calling the initial negotiations “positive” and stressing “the need for the language of negotiation — not the language of war — to prevail.”
That same day, Israel struck four southern Lebanese towns, saying it was targeting Hezbollah infrastructure including weapons depots to stop the group from rearming.
UN peacekeepers called the strikes “clear violations of Security Council resolution 1701,” which ended the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.
The peacekeepers also said their vehicles were fired on by six men on three mopeds near Bint Jbeil on Thursday. There were no injuries in the incident.
“Attacks on peacekeepers are unacceptable and serious violations of resolution 1701,” the international force added.
Hezbollah refuses to disarm but has not responded to Israeli attacks since the ceasefire. It has, however, promised a response to the killing of its military chief in a strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs last month.
