By Evgenia Filimianova

The remains handed over to Israel by the terrorist group Hamas on Dec. 2 are not linked to any of the deceased Israeli hostages, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

Israel received the remains, which the prime minister’s office called “findings,” on Dec. 2 via the Red Cross.

Following an identification process by the National Center of Forensic Medicine, the Israeli authorities said in a Dec. 3 statement that the remains don’t belong to any of the Israeli hostages.

“An update has been delivered to the families of the two fallen hostages. The effort to return them will not cease until the mission is complete—to bring them to proper burial in their homeland,” the statement said.

Under the U.S.-brokered October cease-fire agreement, Hamas is required to return all hostages, living and deceased, to Israel.

Since the announcement of the Gaza peace plan, all 20 living hostages were returned to Israel, and the remains of 26 deceased hostages have also been handed over.

Two deceased hostages, Israeli police officer Ran Gvili and Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak, are still held in Gaza.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said on Dec. 3 that “transferring human remains and falsely claiming they belong to a hostage is an abuse of the real family involved—and also another Hamas violation of the ceasefire.”

Last month, Israeli authorities also accused Hamas of violating the U.S.-brokered cease-fire agreement by returning partial remains of a hostage, who, according to Israeli authorities, had already been buried two years earlier.

Hamas has previously said that it is struggling to locate the remains amid widespread destruction in Gaza, while Israel said the group is deliberately delaying the process.

On Dec. 3, the al-Qassam Brigades and the al-Quds Brigades said on the Al-Aqsa TV Telegram channel—a Hamas-run outlet—that they had discovered remains believed to belong to an Israeli hostage in northern Gaza.

Remaining Deceased Hostages

Gvili and Rinthalak, the two remaining deceased hostages held by Hamas, were both kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza conflict.

Gvili is the only Israeli fallen hostage still held by terrorist organizations in Gaza. He was a police officer with a counterterrorism unit who was killed in the battle to defend Kibbutz Alumim on Oct. 7, 2023.

Rinthalak worked in agriculture to help support his family and was kidnapped from the plantations near Kibbutz Be’eri, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents relatives of most of the Israeli hostages.

Speaking to Gvili’s family on Nov. 28, Netanyahu updated his parents about the ongoing efforts to recover his remains for a proper Jewish burial. He also spoke with Thai Ambassador to Israel Boonyarit Vichienpuntu, reiterating Israel’s commitment to Rinthalak’s return.

The war in Gaza was triggered by the Hamas attack on southern Israel, in which the terrorists killed about 1,200 people and seized 251 hostages.

Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry said on Dec. 3 that more than 70,000 people have died in Gaza since the onset of the conflict. The figure does not distinguish between fighters and civilians and includes some deaths from natural causes. The Epoch Times cannot verify these figures.

Cease-Fire Deal Implementation

The October cease-fire set out a multi-phase plan requiring unrestricted humanitarian aid to enter Gaza through the United Nations, the Red Crescent, and other neutral agencies.

It also stipulated that the Rafah crossing, between Egypt and Gaza, will reopen in both directions under the same procedures used in the previous cease-fire deal on Jan. 19.

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), an agency that implements Israeli government policies in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, said on Dec. 3 that it will open in the coming days.

“In accordance with the ceasefire agreement and a directive of the political echelon, the Rafah Crossing will open in the coming days exclusively for the exit of residents from the Gaza Strip to Egypt,” the COGAT statement said. “The residents’ exit through the Rafah Crossing will be facilitated through coordination with Egypt, following security approval by Israel and under the supervision of the European Union mission, similar to the mechanism that operated in January 2025.”

The next phase of the U.S.-brokered peace deal includes the disarmament of Hamas and the elimination of the terrorist group’s military infrastructure and weaponry.

The United States will work with Arab and other international partners to develop an International Stabilization Force (ISF) to deploy in Gaza for security as it undergoes the transition from war to peaceful governance.

As the ISF establishes control and stability in Gaza, the peace plan requires the IDF to progressively withdraw from the enclave except for a security perimeter.