Israel said it has begun a “large-scale operation” to locate its last remaining hostage in Gaza, Ran Gvili, as Washington and other mediators pressed Israel and Hamas to move into the next stage of their ceasefire. The statement came as Israel’s Cabinet met to discuss whether to open the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, and a day after top U.S. envoys met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about next steps.
Late Sunday, Netanyahu’s office said: “Upon completion of this operations, and in accordance with what has been agreed upon with the United States, Israel will open the Rafah crossing.” It did not specify how long the operation would take, but Israeli military officials were quoted in local media as saying it could take days to complete.
The return of the remaining hostage, Gvili, is widely seen as removing the remaining obstacle to opening Rafah and moving forward with the U.S.-brokered ceasefire’s second phase. The return of all remaining hostages, alive or dead, has been a central part of the first phase of the ceasefire, which took effect on Oct. 10. Before Sunday, the previous hostage was recovered in early December.
While Israel has carried out search efforts before for Gvili, more detail than usual was released about this one. Israel’s military said it was searching a cemetery in northern Gaza near the Yellow Line, which marks off Israeli-controlled parts of the territory.
Separately, an Israeli military official said Gvili may have been buried in the Shijaiya-Tuffah area of Gaza City, and that rabbis and dental experts were on the ground with specialized search teams. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing an operation still under way.
Gvili’s family urged Netanyahu’s government not to enter the ceasefire’s second phase until his remains are returned. But pressure has been building, and the Trump administration has declared in recent days that the second phase is under way.
Hamas, in a statement Sunday, said it had provided all the information it had about Gvili’s remains. It accused Israel of obstructing efforts to search for them in areas of Gaza under Israeli military control.
In a separate development, the shuttered headquarters of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in east Jerusalem was set ablaze overnight, days after Israeli bulldozers demolished parts of the compound. It was not known who started the fire. Roland Friedrich, the agency’s West Bank director, said Israeli settlers were observed at night looting the main building for furniture and that multiple holes were cut in the fence.
Israel’s fire department said it sent teams to prevent the blaze from spreading. UNRWA has reported that in May 2024 it planned to close its compound after settlers set fires to its fence. Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told The Associated Press the incident was the “latest attack on the U.N. in the ongoing attempt to dismantle the status of Palestine refugees.”
UNRWA’s mandate is to provide aid and services to some 2.5 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, as well as 3 million more refugees in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. But its operations were curtailed last year when Israel’s Knesset passed legislation severing ties and banning it from functioning in what it defines as Israel, including east Jerusalem.