The body of a 75-year-old hostage handed over by Hamas to the Red Cross in Gaza late on Friday has been identified by Israel’s military as Eliyahu “Churchill” Margalit.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Margalit was killed at Nir Oz kibbutz on 7 October 2023 during Hamas’s assault on southern Israel and his body taken into the Gaza Strip. His death was confirmed in December 2023. His daughter, Nili Margalit, was also kidnapped and returned as part of a deal in November 2023.
The IDF said in a post on X that it had informed Margalit’s family after his remains were sent to the Ministry of Health’s National Center for Forensic Medicine in Israel.
The office of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that it would “spare no effort until we return all of the fallen abductees, down to the last one”.
Margalit, a grandfather of three who was kidnapped while tending to his horses, is the 10th deceased hostage Israel has received out of 28 bodies held in Gaza.
Under the ceasefire deal, Hamas was obliged to make best efforts in returning all the deceased hostages they held. The families of dead hostages still in Gaza have accused the government of betraying them by signing the deal on such terms. A protest will be held on Saturday night at “hostages square” in Tel Aviv.
Ruby Chen, the father of the Israeli-American hostage Itay Chen, who was 19 when he was killed by Hamas in his tank and taken to Gaza on 7 October, said it was important that people turned out for the demonstration.
He said: “It’s human to want to move on and have a clean slate, to go back and being happy or living a normal life – and [the families of the hostages] are now in conflict with that.
“But we had a deal for 48 hostages. We have 29. don’t see that as the narrative that we want to keep and say 29 of the 48 came out.”
Hamas, citing technical problems, has said it needed heavy machinery and excavating equipment to speed up the process of locating bodies buried under rubble.
On Friday, two bulldozers ploughed up the earth as Hamas searched for hostages’ remains in Hamad city, a complex of apartment towers in the city of Khan Younis.
Israeli forces repeatedly bombarded the towers during the war, toppling some, and troops conducted a week-long raid there in March 2024.
Turkey sent a team of specialists to help retrieve remains buried under the rubble, but the group was still waiting on Friday for Israeli permission to enter the territory.
“It remains unclear when Israel will allow the Turkish team to enter Gaza,” a Turkish official told AFP, noting that the team’s mission included locating Palestinian and hostage remains. A Hamas source told AFP the Turkish delegation was expected to enter by Sunday.
Israel, insisting Hamas knows the whereabouts of the hostages’ bodies, has said the group was running out of time. Hamas has said it remains committed to the ceasefire agreement and to handing over the bodies of all remaining hostages.
Israel has returned to Gaza the bodies of 90 Palestinians for burial. Israel is expected to return more bodies, although officials have not said how many are in its custody or how many will be returned.
The dispute over hostage remains has cast a shadow over the ceasefire agreement – the first phase of US president Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war.
At a news conference in Ankara, Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan said Israel’s statements about the hostage bodies were worrying. “Will Israel use Hamas’ incapability to locate bodies left under rubble … as an excuse and break the ceasefire? There is concern in the international community over this,” he said.
Earlier on Friday, Hamas called on mediators to push for the next steps under the ceasefire, including reopening the border, letting in aid, beginning reconstruction, setting up an administration and completing Israel’s withdrawal.
Fighting has largely stopped in Gaza under Trump’s plan, endorsed by mediators Egypt, Qatar and Turkey. However, Gaza’s Civil Defence Service said on Friday that 11 people were killed when Israeli troops opened fire on a vehicle south east of Gaza City, including seven children and three women.
The Israeli military did not comment on the incident, and Hamas again accused Israel of violating on the ceasefire.
The 20 living hostages who were taken by Hamas along with others during its assault on Israel on 7 October 2023 were returned from Gaza earlier this week.
Israel said on Thursday it was preparing for the reopening of Gaza’s Rafah crossing with Egypt to allow Palestinians to move in and out, but gave no date as it traded blame with Hamas over violations of the ceasefire.
Other unresolved elements of the plan include the disarmament of militants and Gaza’s future governance.
With Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse
