Israel has announced that its military is carrying out a large-scale operation in Gaza to recover the body of the last remaining hostage, Ran Gvili, saying the Rafah border crossing with Egypt will only reopen after the mission is completed.
The Prime Minister’s Office said the operation was aimed at exhausting all available intelligence to locate and return the remains of the fallen police officer, adding that Israel would open the crossing once the search effort was concluded.
The development comes amid pressure from the United States to reopen Rafah and move into the second phase of the ceasefire, which Israel has said is conditional on the return of all hostages, living and deceased.
Palestinian officials have said the crossing was expected to open soon, while Hamas said it had shared all available information on Gvili’s whereabouts and accused Israel of hindering recovery efforts in areas under its control.
Israeli officials, however, maintained that Hamas had delayed the process.
The issue has become the final hurdle to the full implementation of the ceasefire’s next phase, even as tensions persist following a fire at the closed United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) compound in East Jerusalem, an incident the agency described as part of ongoing efforts to undermine its operations.