In an unexpected move, Israeli forces carried out a direct search operation to recover the body of the last Israeli hostage in Gaza, police officer Ran Gvili.
The Israeli military said on Monday it had recovered Gvili’s remains, adding that the retrieval of all hostages, living and dead, from Gaza completes a core provision of the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in the enclave.
Under heavy air and artillery fire, and amid gunfire from Israeli vehicles and drones, several military bulldozers, accompanied by booby-trapped vehicles, advanced shortly after midnight between Saturday and Sunday to the west of the so-called Yellow Line, areas under Hamas control, in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood east of Gaza City.
According to eyewitnesses and field sources cited by Asharq Al-Awsat, the bulldozers later withdrew east of the Yellow Line, areas under Israeli control. Shortly afterward, three booby-trapped vehicles exploded, with the blasts heard across wide parts of the Gaza Strip.
The sources said that soon after the explosions, tanks, armoured vehicles and bulldozers, accompanied by excavation equipment, moved back into the area, specifically toward al-Batsh cemetery in al-Tuffah, west of the Yellow Line.
Sustained shelling and gunfire from vehicles and drones killed at least two Palestinians and wounded more than 25 others at different times, some critically, according to the sources.
Gaza’s civil defense has indicated that there may be additional casualties but access to them is prevented by Israeli forces.
Not an Ordinary operation
Initial assessments suggested the move was a routine operation to expand the Yellow Line, similar to actions carried out in eastern Gaza City. It later emerged, however, from a statement issued by Abu Ubaida, spokesperson for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, that the Israeli army was conducting the operation to search for the body of the last Israeli hostage, police officer Ran Gvili. This was later confirmed by the Israeli military spokesperson and by the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The announcement raised questions about the apparent shift in how Israel handled the recovery of hostages’ bodies. In previous cases, the al-Qassam Brigades had overseen such operations, including inside areas designated as Yellow Line zones and under Israeli control, in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross, following prior arrangements involving Hamas, mediators and Israel.
Israeli objection to al-Qassam Brigades' involvement
Field sources from Hamas told Asharq Al-Awsat that al-Qassam team, accompanied by the Red Cross, had been expected to carry out the operation. Israel, however, objected and demanded the handover of coordinates for the area where the body was believed to be located. The information was relayed through mediators, after which the Israeli operation began.
A senior political source involved in the ceasefire negotiations confirmed this information, saying Israel insisted on carrying out the operation itself. Israel cited reasons including the speed of the search, its technical capabilities to identify remains, and its ability to verify identity on site rather than recover the body for examination elsewhere.
The source said mediators supported the expedited approach that allowed Israel to extract the body directly.
According to the sources, Hamas did not have precise information on the body’s location but indicated al-Batsh cemetery, between the al-Tuffah and Shuja’iyya neighbourhoods.
This marked the second Israeli operation inside al-Batsh cemetery since the start of the Gaza war. Sources said it was the third operation to affect the site overall, where no Israeli bodies had previously been found.
Near Khalil al-Hayya’s Home
Footage released by Israeli media, taken by Israeli drones, showed machinery excavating most of the graves at the cemetery through Monday morning. Israeli army radio said more than 250 Palestinian graves had been exhumed.
The cemetery lies about 500 metres from the original Yellow Line, but successive expansions have left it only metres from the updated boundary.
Field sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the area searched for the hostage’s body was about 30 metres from Khalil al-Hayya Street, named after the home of Hamas’s Gaza-based political leader, who is leading ceasefire negotiations. Tanks were deployed along the street and in surrounding areas to secure the forces operating at the cemetery.
How Was the Location Identified?
Previous searches for Gvili’s body, focused on the al-Zeitoun and Shuja’iyya areas, had failed. On why the search was focused on al-Tuffah, Hamas field and political sources said some fighters with indirect knowledge of the case had provided information indicating the body had, at one point, been buried in that cemetery.
They said the information could not be confirmed with high confidence because those directly involved had been killed or targeted in separate attacks or clashes during the war.
The sources suggested the information may have matched intelligence obtained by Israel’s Shin Bet security service from a Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative abducted about a month ago from Gaza City, who had links to the abduction of the Israeli police officer and the handling of his body.
The sources said Israel appeared to have information pointing to the cemetery even before Hamas relayed its own coordinates, linking the timing of the search to a decision to open the Rafah crossing, expected on Tuesday or, at the latest, Thursday.
Hamas Calls for Enforcement of the Agreement
Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qasim said in a statement that the recovery of the body of the last Israeli hostage in Gaza “confirms the movement’s commitment to all requirements of the ceasefire agreement, including the exchange track and its full completion in accordance with the deal.”
He reaffirmed Hamas’s commitment to all aspects of the agreement, including facilitating the work of the national committee tasked with administering Gaza, and called on mediators and the United States to compel Israel to halt violations of the agreement and implement its outstanding obligations.
