The Red Cross transferred two deceased hostages to Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip early on Sunday, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office.
The chief rabbi of the Israel Defense Forces led a military ceremony as the remains arrived in the Jewish state, after which the bodies went to the National Center of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv to be identified.
IDF representatives informed the family of slain hostage Ronen Tommy Engel that one of the bodies was his, the military said later on Sunday morning.
Engel, 54 years old at the time of his death, was killed by Hamas during the Oct. 7, 2023, onslaught when he went out to protect his family as terrorists invaded his hometown of Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Engel leaves behind a wife, three children and a brother. His wife, Karina, and two daughters, Mika and Yuval, were also abducted, and were returned as part of a ceasefire deal with Hamas in November 2023.
On Sunday afternoon, the military announced that the second body had been identified as belonging to Sontaya Ukkharsri, 30, a Thai national who was abducted while working in the fields near Kibbutz Be’eri.
Ukkharsri, a married father of one, was among the more than three dozen Thai citizens who were murdered during the Oct. 7 massacre.
“The IDF expresses deep condolences to the family, continues to make every effort to return all the deceased hostages, and is prepared for the continued implementation of the agreement,” the IDF statement said.
The PMO announced that it had updated all of the families of hostages, adding that “our hearts are with them in this difficult hour.”
“The effort to return our hostages is ongoing and will not cease until the last hostage is returned,” it said.
Some 6,000 terrorists from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Fatah, as well as unaffiliated Gazan civilians, infiltrated the Jewish state’s southern border on Oct. 7, 2023, murdering some 1,200 people, wounding thousands and kidnapping 251.
The latest truce deal with Hamas saw Hamas free the remaining 20 living hostages last week in exchange for a partial Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the release from jail of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement, Hamas was required to return all 28 hostage bodies it held on Oct. 13. So far, it has transferred to Israel only 12.
