Final Israeli hostage remains returned from Gaza, allowing next peace plan phase to begin

The remains of the final Israeli hostage were returned from Gaza to Israel on Monday, allowing the next phase of President Trump’s 20-point peace plan to begin.The Israel Defense Forces said it had identified the remains of Ran Gvili, the last hostage whose body was held in Gaza, The Hill news outlet reported. Gvili, 24, served in the Israeli Police Force and died during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
The return of all living and dead hostages kidnapped by Hamas was a key point of the first phase of Trump’s initial ceasefire deal, which went into effect on Oct. 10.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the return of Gvili’s body “is an extraordinary achievement for Israel.”
“We promised, and I promised, to bring everyone back, and we brought everyone back … to the very last one,” Netanyahu said.
“Rani is a hero of Israel. He went in first, he came out last. He came back.”
Netanyahu’s office said Sunday that with the return of the last hostage and in accordance with the peace plan, Israel would agree to reopen the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt solely for pedestrian passage, “subject to a full Israeli inspection mechanism.”
Israel has kept the Rafah crossing largely closed since May 2024, except for a short period in early 2025.
The next phase of the peace plan calls for Hamas to decommission its weapons and “commit to peaceful co-existence” or leave the Gaza Strip. 
During a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week, Trump said that Hamas agreed to surrender its weapons within “the next three weeks,” but warned of military action if the terrorist group failed to comply.
“If they don’t do it, they’re going to – they’ll be blown away. Very quickly. They’ll be blown away,” Trump said.
Hamas has said it is open to “freezing or storing” its weapons, and that it would give up governance of the strip once a Palestinian technocratic body takes over.
Trump announced earlier this month that a Gaza-born former official with the Palestinian Authority, Ali Shaath, would head the transitional, nonpolitical government in Gaza. He previously was a deputy minister of planning and international cooperation, and undersecretary at the Ministry of Transportation and Communications for the Palestinian Authority.

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