The office clarified that these results will be referred to the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv for the necessary examinations, noting that officials are in continuous contact with the families of the two hostages whose bodies remain held in Gaza: Sergeant First Class Ran Gavili and Thai citizen Sudthisak Rinthalak. There have been several previous instances of the transfer of “remains” believed to belong to detainees to Israel, but it was later found that they did not pertain to any of the actual prisoners.
The “Al-Quds Brigades,” the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, announced last week the discovery of the remains of one of the three remaining Israeli detainees in the Gaza Strip. This development comes in the context of the exchange deal that took place as part of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza on October 10th, during which Palestinian factions released 20 Israeli prisoners alive and the remains of 27 others out of 28, according to the factions’ announcement.
The agreement came into effect on October 10th, 2025, and on October 13th, U.S. President Donald Trump, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signed a declaration on consolidating the ceasefire in Gaza. Under the agreement, the movement released the 20 who had remained alive since the events of October 7th, 2023, in exchange for Israel releasing about 2,000 Palestinian detainees from Gaza, including long-term sentenced individuals.
