Israel identified four deceased hostages transferred by Hamas under the Gaza ceasefire and released four names: Guy Illouz and Bipin Joshi, followed by Yossi Sharabi and Daniel Peretz. Israeli forensic teams informed their families after the remains returned on Monday, while final findings on the circumstances of their deaths were still to be completed.
Illouz, 26, was an Israeli sound technician from Ra'anana. The Israel Defense Forces said he escaped the October 7, 2023, attack on the Nova music festival before being injured and abducted alive. The IDF assessed that he later died from his wounds without adequate treatment in captivity.
Joshi, a 23-year-old Nepalese agriculture student, had arrived in Israel only weeks before Hamas gunmen attacked Kibbutz Alumim. The Hostages Families Forum said he pushed away a live grenade while sheltering with other foreign students, saving lives. Israel's military concluded that he was killed during the first months of captivity.
Sharabi, 53, was taken from his home at Kibbutz Be'eri with his brother Eli. The IDF had previously found that Yossi Sharabi likely died when structural collapse followed an Israeli attack upon an adjacent building. Eli survived captivity and was released in February 2025.
Peretz, 22, held Israeli and South African citizenship and was an IDF captain assigned to its 7th Armoured Brigade. He died during an assault on his tank near Nahal Oz on October 7, after which his body was taken into Gaza, according to an earlier Israeli military account.
The handover formed part of an agreement that also freed the 20 surviving hostages in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and detention. Twenty-four deceased hostages remained to be returned after Monday's transfer. Hamas said recovery could require more time because some burial places were unknown and remains lay beneath destroyed buildings. The International Committee of the Red Cross warned that searches might last days or weeks.
Israeli officials responded to the delay by deciding to reduce humanitarian deliveries and keep the Rafah crossing with Egypt closed until all bodies were handed over. UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said Hamas must fulfil its promise but also urged Israel to maintain open crossings for urgently needed assistance. A mechanism in the published ceasefire text allowed mediators and the Red Cross to help exchange location information when bodies could not be found by the deadline.
The return provided the families with the possibility of burial after more than two years of uncertainty. It also exposed a difficult next phase: recovering the remaining dead without allowing disputes over timing to interrupt humanitarian access or unravel the ceasefire.
