Eliyahu Margalit, 76, has been identified as the 10th dead hostage returned to Israel by Hamas, as part of a fragile ceasefire deal
Israel has confirmed it has identified the remains of the 10th dead hostage to be returned by Hamas.
The body has been identified as Eliyahu Margalit, 76, who was abducted during the October 7 attack in Israel. The 76-year-old had been working at horse stables in Kibbutz Nir Oz when he was taken by Hamas and moved to Gaza. The Israeli prime minister’s office said the remains were confirmed to be of Margalit, who was known to his family and friends as Churchill, following forensic testing and added that his family has been identified.
Israel’s Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Eliyahu was a “a cowboy at heart” and had worked at a cattle branch and horse stables in Nir Oz for years.
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His death was announced back in December 2023, a month after his daughter Nili, who was also taken hostage by Hamas, was released.
The hostage exchange is a key part of the delicate peace agreement between Israel and Hamas to end the catastrophic bombing of Gaza. Hamas handed over the last 20 living hostages to the Red Cross, and were then sent to Israel, on Monday.
The bodies of 28 hostages also had to be handed back to Israel as part of the peace agreement. The remains of four hostages were sent back on Monday with others being handed across as they are found amid the sea of rubble that Gaza has been brought to following relentless Israeli strikes, since October 7.
Eliyahu’s remains are the 10th to be handed back since Mondays pause in violence. The remains of 18 other hostages are yet to be handed back but bulldozers have been deployed to work on the search for more bodies. Israel has since said it will slash aid deliveries to Gaza as the group was not returning the remains as agreed.
Outrage was sparked earlier this week when Israel said one of the bodies handed over by Hamas was not one of the hostages. The military said that “following the completion of examinations at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, the fourth body handed over to Israel by Hamas does not match any of the hostages”.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu demanded that Hamas fulfil the requirements laid out in the ceasefire deal – introduced by US President Donald Trump – about the return of the hostages’ bodies. He said: “We will not compromise on this and will not stop our efforts until we return the last deceased hostage, until the last one.”
Hamas has since blamed Israel for making the task of finding bodies under rubble difficult. As part of to ceasefire deal Israel freed 250 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and 1,718 detainees from Gaza.