JERUSALEM, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- Israel sent a delegation to Cairo on Thursday for talks with mediators aimed at securing the "immediate return" of the body of the last remaining hostage held in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.
The delegation was led by Gal Hirsch, Israel's coordinator for hostages and missing persons, and included representatives from the military, the Shin Bet security agency and the Mossad intelligence agency.
"Following the discussion, it was agreed to focus on an intensive and immediate effort to fully complete the hostage-recovery mission," the office said, without elaborating.
Earlier Thursday, Israel said the remains returned by Hamas a day earlier were those of Sudthisak Rinthalak, a Thai farmworker killed in Kibbutz Be'eri during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack. His body was taken to Gaza.
The latest handover, leaving only one hostage still in Gaza, moves both sides closer to concluding the first phase of the ceasefire.
The last deceased hostage remaining in Gaza is Ran Gvili, an Israeli officer from Yasam, a special riot-control unit of the Israel Police.
Since the start of the ceasefire on Oct. 10, Hamas has released 20 living hostages and 27 bodies, while Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinians from its prisons and returned the bodies of hundreds of Palestinians. ■
