Israeli authorities identified volunteer ambulance driver Lior Rudaeff among the most recent remains returned from Gaza, leaving five bodies still to be handed over under the U.S.-brokered truce. The ceasefire exchange has already seen 20 living hostages released and hundreds of Palestinian detainees freed, with the agreed formula pairing each Israeli return with 15 Palestinian bodies. Palestinian health officials reported 15 more bodies arrived in Khan Yunis, bringing the returned total to 300, many unidentified. Israel and Hamas continue to dispute the pace and causes of remaining delays.
Israel Identifies Volunteer Ambulance Driver Among Latest Returned Remains — Five Bodies Still Awaited
Israeli authorities identified volunteer ambulance driver Lior Rudaeff among the most recent remains returned from Gaza, leaving five bodies still to be handed over under the U.S.-brokered truce. The ceasefire exchange has already seen 20 living hostages released and hundreds of Palestinian detainees freed, with the agreed formula pairing each Israeli return with 15 Palestinian bodies. Palestinian health officials reported 15 more bodies arrived in Khan Yunis, bringing the returned total to 300, many unidentified. Israel and Hamas continue to dispute the pace and causes of remaining delays.
15:19, 08.11.2025Conflict
Israel Identifies Volunteer Ambulance Driver Among Latest Returned Remains
Israeli authorities on Saturday announced the identification of the most recent remains returned from Gaza, confirming the body as that of volunteer ambulance driver Lior Rudaeff. The transfer leaves five bodies still to be handed over under the U.S.-brokered truce that has paused the two-year conflict.
Rudaeff, an Israeli-Argentinian, was 61 at the time of the October 7, 2023 attack that precipitated the Gaza war. He was one of five armed civilians killed while trying to defend the Nir Yitzhak kibbutz. His death was officially recorded by Israeli authorities in May 2024 and his name was placed on the list of 20 living and 28 deceased hostages that Hamas agreed to return under the ceasefire terms.
According to Israeli officials, five bodies remain to be returned: four taken during the October 7 attacks (three Israeli citizens and one Thai national) and the remains of a soldier who died in combat in 2014 during an earlier Gaza conflict.
"Lior's return provides some measure of comfort to a family that has lived with agonising uncertainty and doubt for over two years. We will not rest until the last hostage is brought home," said the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents relatives of those affected.
The first phase of the ceasefire arrangement, mediated by U.S. officials, enabled a hostage-prisoner exchange: Hamas returned 20 surviving hostages while Israel released hundreds of Palestinian detainees. Under the agreed formula, each released Israeli hostage is matched by the return of 15 Palestinian bodies to Gaza.
On Saturday the Nasser Medical Centre in Khan Yunis reported the arrival of 15 Palestinian bodies — delivered by the International Committee of the Red Cross — bringing the total number of Palestinian remains returned under the agreement to 300. Many of those remains have been returned unidentified, and some have been laid to rest in mass graves.
Israel has accused Hamas of delaying the handovers; Hamas says the process is slow because many remains remain buried beneath Gaza's bombed-out rubble. The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated its demand that Hamas "uphold its commitments" and urged the return of the remaining five bodies.
Casualty figures cited in official tallies remain stark and contested: an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures lists 1,221 people killed on the Israeli side during the October 2023 attacks, mostly civilians. Gaza's health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority, reports 69,169 Palestinians killed in the Israeli campaign — again mostly civilians — while the Israeli military reports 479 soldiers killed in the Gaza campaign since the start of the ground offensive at the end of October 2023.
This exchange of remains and hostages underscores both the fragile progress of the truce and the intense humanitarian and political pressures surrounding efforts to account for the missing and return the dead to their families.