Israel says Gaza hostage remains belong to Tanzanian student

Israel on Thursday said the remains handed over by Hamas a day earlier belonged to Joshua Loitu Mollel, a Tanzanian student whose body was taken to Gaza after he was killed in the October 7, 2023 attack.

Hamas returned the remains on Wednesday as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump.

“Following the completion of the identification process… the ministry of foreign affairs informed the family of the abducted fallen hostage, Joshua Loitu Mollel… that their loved one has been returned,” the prime minister’s office said.

The Israeli military also confirmed Mollel’s identity in a separate statement.

Mollel’s remains are the 22nd set handed over by Hamas since a ceasefire took effect on October 10.

At the start of the truce, Hamas held 48 hostages in Gaza — 20 alive and 28 deceased.

The militants have since released all the surviving captives.

The 22 repatriated bodies include 19 Israelis, one Thai national, one Nepali and Mollel.

“Amid their grief and the knowledge that their hearts will never fully heal, Joshua’s return offers some comfort to a family that has endured unbearable uncertainty for over two years,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.

Mollel, aged 21 at the time of the attack, had been in Israel on an agricultural internship programme.

The Tanzanian government announced in December 2023 that Mollel had been killed in the October 7 attack and his body taken into Gaza.

His father, Loitu Mollel, told AFP in October 2023 that his son had been living at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, a collective farm village near the Gaza Strip.

The eldest of five children, he was described by his father as “polite, obedient and serious” about his work.

After earning a diploma in agricultural studies from a college in Morogoro, eastern Tanzania, Mollel travelled to Israel in September 2023 to begin his internship.

Another fellow intern was also killed in the attack, while a third survived.

Israel has accused Hamas of dragging its feet in returning the bodies of deceased hostages, while the Palestinian group says the process is slow because many are buried beneath Gaza’s rubble.

The group has repeatedly called on mediators and the Red Cross to provide it with the necessary equipment and personnel to recover the bodies.