Israel identified on Saturday the latest hostage remains sent back from Gaza by Palestinian militants, leaving only five more bodies to be returned under the US-brokered truce that halted the two-year war.

The Israeli military identified the body handed over on Friday as that of volunteer ambulance driver Lior Rudaeff, who was killed in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the Gaza war.

The Israeli-Argentinian was 61 at the time of the bloody cross-border attack and one of five armed civilians killed while trying to defend his community, the Nir Yitzhak kibbutz.

His death was confirmed by Israeli authorities in May 2024 and his name was put on the list of 20 living and 28 dead former hostages that Hamas agreed to return under the terms of the October ceasefire.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a campaign group representing the Israeli families caught up in the crisis, welcomed Rudaeff's homecoming.

"Lior's return provides some measure of comfort to a family that has lived with agonising uncertainty and doubt........

© Al Monitor