The remains of the second of two hostages recovered from Gaza this week have been identified as belonging to the student Idan Shtivi, the Israeli prime minister's office has said.
"A special operation... in the Gaza Strip resulted in the return of the body of the late Idan Shtivi," Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement.
The Israeli military said in a statement yesterday that it had recovered the body of Ilan Weiss and the remains of a second hostage whose name was not initially released.
"After completing the identification process at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, permission was granted this evening to announce his return to Israel," the prime minister's office added.
Idan Shtivi was 28 when he was killed on 7 October 2023, at the Nova music festival, where he was attending as a photographer, when it was attacked by Hamas-led militants.
He tried to flee the scene with two friends, but lost control of his car, which crashed into a tree.
The car was found riddled with bullet holes.
For a year, his family held out hope that he was alive, before being informed by the authorities on the eve of the first anniversary of the attack, that the young man had been killed at the festival.
The Israeli military said in a statement today that Mr Shtivi and Mr Weiss's bodies were recovered in a "complex rescue operation".
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group said the return of Idan Shtivi's body represented "the closing of a circle and fulfils the State of Israel's fundamental obligation to its citizens".
Mass evacuation of Gaza City 'impossible', Red Cross says
Earlier, the head of the international Red Cross denounced Israel's plans for a mass evacuation of Gaza City ahead of a military takeover, insisting there was no way it could be done safely.
"It is impossible that a mass evacuation of Gaza City could ever be done in a way that is safe and dignified under the current conditions," International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) president Mirjana Spoljaric said in a statement.
"Such an evacuation would trigger a massive population movement that no area in the Gaza Strip can absorb, given the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure and the extreme shortages of food, water, shelter and medical care," she warned.
Her comments came after Israel's military yesterday declared Gaza City "a dangerous combat zone", as it prepared to conquer the occupied Palestinian territory's largest city after almost two years of war.
The Israeli military did not call for the population to evacuate immediately but the army's Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, said on Wednesday that the city's evacuation was "inevitable".
Israel is under mounting pressure at home and abroad to end its devastating offensive in Gaza, where the vast majority of the population has been displaced at least once and the United Nations has declared a famine.
The UN estimates that nearly a million people currently live in Gaza governorate, which includes Gaza City and its surroundings in the north of the territory.
Any evacuation order "would be imposed on civilians who are already traumatised by months of fighting and terrified by what could come next", Ms Spoljaric said.
"Many are unable to comply with evacuation orders because they are starving, sick, injured or suffering from physical disabilities," she pointed out, stressing that "all civilians are protected by international humanitarian law (IHL), whether they leave or stay behind, and must be allowed to return home".
Ms Spoljaric highlighted that "IHL requires that when evacuation orders are issued, Israel must do everything to ensure that civilians have satisfactory conditions of shelter, hygiene, health, safety and nutrition, and that families are not separated".
"These conditions cannot currently be met in Gaza," she said.
"This makes any evacuation not only unfeasible but incomprehensible under the present circumstances."
The ICRC president reiterated the call for an immediate ceasefire, a mass-influx of aid and for Palestinian group Hamas to release its remaining Israeli hostages.
"Any further escalation of the conflict will only lead to more death, destruction and displacement," she said.
Analysis and comment: Did Israel target the journalists killed in Gaza this week?
