Israel on Thursday identified the remains of a hostage handed over by Hamas the previous night as Joshua Luito Mollel, 21, an agricultural student from Tanzania.
He was working in the cowshed at Kibbutz Nahal Oz on the morning of Oct. 7, 2023, when he was murdered by Hamas terrorists and his body was taken to Gaza.
Mollel is survived by his parents, three sisters and a brother.
“The Government of Israel shares in the deep sorrow of the Mollel family and all the families of the fallen hostages,” the Prime Minister’s Office said. The Israel Defense Forces also expressed its “deep condolences to the family.”
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum wrote on X that it “bows its head in sorrow and shares in the profound grief of the Mollel family.”
Joshua is brought to Israel after 761 days 💔
— Bring Them Home Now (@bringhomenow) November 6, 2025
Joshua Loitu Mollel from Tanzania was murdered and abducted from Kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7th.
Joshua, 21 years old at the time of his death, was the eldest of four siblings living in Tanzania.
A student in an agricultural… pic.twitter.com/dnsRhc7ly8
“Joshua, 21 years old at the time of his death, was the eldest of four siblings living in Tanzania. A student in an agricultural internship program, Joshua worked at a dairy farm on Kibbutz Nahal Oz. Joshua arrived in Israel just 19 days before the brutal Hamas attack. On Saturday morning, he worked the morning shift at the dairy farm,” the Forum said.
Israeli troops escorted the coffin carrying Mollel’s remains across the border into Israel on Wednesday night. The body was taken to the National Institute for Forensic Medicine (Abu Kabir) in Tel Aviv for identification.
Hamas transferred the remains to the Red Cross, which passed them to Israeli troops in Gaza. The IDF inspected the coffin, draped it with an Israeli flag, and held a brief ceremony led by a military rabbi.
Rintalak Suttisak (also referred to as Sudthisak Rinthalak), a farm worker from Thailand, is the other deceased foreign national still held by Gaza terrorists, along with five Israelis—Meny Godard, Lt. Hadar Goldin, Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, Dror Or and Israeli-Argentinean dual national Lior Rudaeff.
Hamas continues to hold bodies in violation of an agreement brokered by Washington last month.
The Jewish state on Tuesday recovered the body of Israeli-American Itay Chen, a staff sergeant in the IDF, whom Hamas terrorists killed in battle at Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7.
“The Hamas terrorist organization is required to uphold its commitments to the mediators and return the fallen hostages as part of the implementation of the agreement,” the Prime Minister’s Office said. “We will not compromise on this and will spare no effort until we return all of the fallen hostages, every last one of them.”
