JERUSALEM – Israel said on Saturday that the remains of a hostage returned from Gaza the previous night belong to an Israeli man who died while fighting Hamas in the militants' Oct. 7, 2023 attack that started the war .

The identification marked another step forward for the tenuous, U.S.-brokered ceasefire . The hostage body was identified as that of Lior Rudaeff, according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 's office.

Recommended Videos

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Rudaeff was born in Argentina and moved to Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, a farming community in southern Israel, as a child. He volunteered for more than 40 years as an ambulance driver and was a member of the community’s emergency response team.

The forum said he was killed in the Hamas-l

See Full Page