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
Washington presses Syria to shift from Chinese telecom systems
- Syria is exploring the possibility of procuring Chinese technology
- It was unclear whether the United States pledged financial or logistical support to Syria to do so
DAMASCUS: The United States has warned Syria against relying on Chinese technology in its telecommunications sector, arguing it conflicts with US interests and threatens US national security, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
The message was conveyed during an unreported meeting between a US State Department team and Syrian Communications Minister Abdulsalam Haykal in San Francisco on Tuesday. Washington has been coordinating closely with Damascus since 2024, when Syria’s now President Ahmed Al-Sharaa ousted longtime leader Bashar Assad, who had a strategic partnership with China.
Syria is exploring the possibility of procuring Chinese technology to support its telecommunications towers and the infrastructure of local Internet service providers, according to a Syrian businessman involved in the procurement talks.
“The US side asked for clarity on the ministry’s plans regarding Chinese telecom equipment,” said another source briefed on the talks.
But Syrian officials said infrastructure development projects were time-critical and that Damascus was seeking greater vendor diversity, the source added.
SYRIAN OFFICIALS CITE US EXPORT CONTROLS AS TELECOMS BARRIER
Syria is open to partnering with US firms but the matter was urgent and export controls and “over-compliance” remained an issue, according to person familiar with the meeting in San Francisco.
A US diplomat familiar with the discussions told Reuters that the US State Department “clearly urged Syrians to use American technology or technology from allied countries in the telecoms sector.”
It was unclear whether the United States pledged financial or logistical support to Syria to do so.
Responding to Reuters questions, a US State Department spokesperson said: “We urge countries to prioritize national security and privacy over lower-priced equipment and services in all critical infrastructure procurement. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”
The spokesperson added that Chinese intelligence and security services “can legally compel Chinese citizens and companies to share sensitive data or grant unauthorized access to their customers’ systems” and promises by Chinese companies to protect customers’ privacy were “entirely inconsistent with China’s own laws and well-established practices.”
China has repeatedly rejected allegations of it using technology for spying purposes.
The Syrian Ministry of telecommunications told Reuters any decisions related to equipment and infrastructure are made “in accordance with national technical and security standards, ensuring data protection and service continuity.”
The ministry said it is also prioritizing the diversification of partnerships and technology sources to serve the national interest.
Syria’s telecom infrastructure has relied heavily on Chinese technology due to US sanctions imposed on successive Assad governments over the civil war that grew from a crackdown on anti-government protests in 2011.
Huawei technology accounts for more than 50 percent of the infrastructure of Syriatel and MTN, the country’s only telecom operators, according to a senior source at one of the companies and documents reviewed by Reuters. Huawei did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Syria is seeking to develop its private telecommunications sector, devastated by 14 years of war, by attracting foreign investment.
In early February, Saudi Arabia’s largest telecom operator, STC, announced it would invest $800 million to “strengthen telecommunications infrastructure and connect Syria regionally and internationally through a fiber-optic network extending over 4,500 kilometers.”
The ministry of telecommunications says that US restrictions “hinder the availability of many American technologies and services in the Syrian market,” emphasizing that it welcomes expanding cooperation with US companies when these restrictions are lifted.
Syria has inadequate telecommunications infrastructure, with network coverage weak outside city centers and connection speeds in many areas barely exceeding a few kilobits per second.
