Israel identifies remains of Thai hostage Sudthisak Rinthalak, leaving just one deceased captive’s body yet to be returned under the fragile US-brokered ceasefire.
JERUSALEM: Israel’s army said on Thursday it had identified the remains of the second-to-last Gaza hostage to be handed over.
The deceased captive was named as Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak. He was 43 years old at the time of his death and worked in agriculture.
The army said Rinthalak was killed on October 7, 2023, and his body was taken to the Gaza Strip and held there.
“Following the completion of the identification process… IDF representatives, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, informed the family of Sudthisak Rinthalak that his body has been returned for burial,” the army said in a statement.
The identification comes as a US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas remains fragile, with both sides accusing each other of violating the terms.
While Hamas released the living hostages it held in Gaza as part of the deal, the process of returning the remains of the deceased captives has dragged on.
Under the first phase of the Washington-brokered deal, Palestinian militants have handed over the last 20 living hostages. So far, the remains of 27 out of 28 deceased ones have been returned.
The last remaining deceased hostage to be handed over is Israeli.
In exchange, Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in its custody and returned the bodies of hundreds of dead Palestinians.
Militants took 251 people hostage during Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the devastating war and resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.
Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 70,117 people, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
