The body of a hostage returned by Hamas via the Red Cross in Gaza has been identified as Israeli-American soldier Itay Chen, Israel has confirmed.
The 19-year-old soldier’s remains were returned on Tuesday as part of a Gaza ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump last month.
“Following the completion of the identification process… IDF representatives informed the family of the fallen hostage, Staff Sergeant Itay Chen, that their loved one has been returned to Israel and positively identified,” the Israeli prime minister’s office said.
Earlier, Hamas’s military wing said it had recovered the body of an Israeli soldier in the eastern Shejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City.
Israel had allowed members of the group and Red Cross staff to search for the remains in the area, which is inside territory still controlled by Israeli forces.
Chen was working at his base on the Gaza border when Hamas and its allies launched their attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.
His family lost communication with him after he told them his base was under attack.
Chen was initially believed to have been taken hostage by jihadists was actually killed in the 7 October attacks, the Israeli military said in March 2024. It said he had died in combat and his body had been taken to Gaza.
The Israeli government has accused Hamas of deliberately delaying the recovery of the dead hostages since a US-brokered ceasefire deal took effect on 10 October.
Hamas has insisted it is difficult to locate the bodies under rubble.
Under the ceasefire deal, Hamas agreed to return the 20 living and 28 dead hostages it was still holding within 72 hours.
All the living Israeli hostages were released on 13 October in exchange for 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,718 detainees from Gaza.
Israel has handed over the bodies of 270 Palestinians in exchange for the bodies of the 19 Israeli hostages returned by Hamas, along with those of two foreign hostages – one of them Thai and the other Nepalese.
Five of the seven dead hostages still in Gaza are Israelis, one is Tanzanian, and one is Thai.
All but one of the dead hostages still in Gaza were among the 251 people abducted during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, during which about 1,200 other people were killed.
Israel responded by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 68,800 people have been killed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Earlier on Tuesday, a hospital official in Gaza City said a man was killed by Israeli fire in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza.
The Israeli military said its troops killed a “terrorist” who had crossed the “Yellow Line”, which demarcates Israeli-controlled territory, and posed a threat to them.
