Israel launches ‘large-scale operation’ to find last Gaza hostage

Israel said on Sunday its military was conducting a “large-scale operation” to locate the last hostage in Gaza, as Washington and other mediators pressure Israel and Hamas to move into the next phase of their ceasefire.The statement came as Israel’s cabinet met to discuss the possibility of opening Gaza’s key Rafah border crossing with Egypt, and a day after top US envoys met the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, about next steps.Israel’s demand for the return of the last hostage, Ran Gvili, has been widely seen as the last obstacle to opening the Rafah crossing and beginning the US-brokered ceasefire’s second phase.Late Sunday, Netanyahu’s office in a statement said that once this search operation is “exhausted and in accordance with the agreement with the United States, Israel will open the Rafah crossing”.The return of all remaining hostages, alive or dead, has been a central part of the first phase of the ceasefire that took effect on 10 October. The previous hostage was recovered in early December.While Israel has carried out search efforts before for Gvili, more detail than usual was released about this one. Israel’s military said it was searching a cemetery in northern Gaza near the “yellow line”, which marks off Israeli-controlled parts of the territory.Separately, an Israeli military official said Gvili may have been buried in the Shuja’iya-Daraj Tuffah area, and that rabbis and dental experts were on the ground with specialised search teams. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing an operation still under way.Gvili’s family has urged Netanyahu’s government not to enter the ceasefire’s second phase until his remains are returned.But pressure has been building, and the Trump administration has already declared in recent days that the second phase is under way.Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of dragging its feet in the recovery of the final hostage. Hamas in a statement Sunday said it had provided all the information it had about Gvili’s remains, and accused Israel of obstructing efforts to search for them in areas of Gaza under Israeli military control.Meanwhile, the shuttered headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in East Jerusalem was set ablaze overnight, days after Israeli bulldozers demolished parts of the compound.It was not known who started the fire. Israeli settlers were observed at night looting the main building for furniture, said Roland Friedrich, the agency’s West Bank director. He said holes were cut in the fence.Israel’s fire department said it sent teams to prevent the blaze from spreading. In May 2024, Unrwa said it was closing its compound after settlers set fires to its fence.Unrwa’s commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, told the Associated Press the incident was the “latest attack on the UN in the ongoing attempt to dismantle the status of Palestine refugees”.Unrwa’s mandate is to provide aid and services to 2.5 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as 3 million more refugees in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. But its operations were curtailed last year when Israel’s Knesset passed legislation severing ties and banning it from functioning in what it defines as Israel, including East Jerusalem.Israel has long railed against the agency, accusing it of being infiltrated by Hamas and alleging that some of its employees were involved in the 2023 attack that triggered Israel’s two-year war in Gaza. Unrwa leaders have said they took swift action against the employees accused of taking part in the attack, and have denied allegations that the agency tolerates or collaborates with Hamas.