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President Donald Trump on Monday praised the recovery of the final Israeli hostage’s remains from Gaza as an achievement many believed was impossible, moving attention toward the next phase of his Gaza framework to disarm Hamas.
The Israel Defense Forces announced that they had located, recovered and identified the body of Sgt. 1st Class Ran Gvili, the last Israeli hostage held in Gaza, bringing Phase I of the ceasefire agreement’s hostage return track to a close.
President Trump credited his team for the outcome in a Truth Social post.
“Just recovered the last Hostage body in GAZA. Thus, got back ALL 20 of the living Hostages, and ALL of the Dead! AMAZING JOB! Most thought of it as an impossible thing to do. Congratulations to my great team of Champions!!!” he wrote.
In interviews with Axios and Israeli television, President Trump said Hamas assisted in efforts to locate Gvili’s remains and described a difficult identification process.
“They worked very hard to get the body back,” the president said, adding that teams “had to go through hundreds of bodies.”
With the recovery completed, President Trump said the next stage of the agreement must move forward.
“Now we need to disarm Hamas, as they promised,” Trump said, arguing that earlier skeptics had been wrong about the hostage effort and could again be mistaken. “Nobody believed we would bring back all the hostages. It was a great moment.”
President Trump said special envoy Steve Witkoff and adviser Jared Kushner briefed him Monday morning before he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he said “was thrilled.” He also asked that his message be conveyed to Gvili’s family.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the return of the last hostage’s remains “a huge foreign policy feat,” saying the president “made the impossible possible,” while noting that the administration is now focused on broader postwar arrangements for Gaza.
In Israel, Netanyahu described the recovery as “an extraordinary achievement,” calling it an achievement “for the Israel Defense Forces, the State of Israel, the citizens of Israel,” and said Israel had fulfilled its pledge.