The hostage's body is that of 54-year-old Ronen Engel.

The body of the returned hostage is that of 54-year-old Ronen Engel. The army has informed the family of hostage Ronen Engel... that their loved one has been returned to Israel and his identification has been completed, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement. Israel will spare no effort until all the fallen hostages are repatriated, it added. Engel, a resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz, was kidnapped from his home and killed by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and his body was taken to Gaza. The Israeli army announced his death on December 1, 2023. He was one of two dead hostages returned by Hamas yesterday. Engel's wife, Karina Engel-Bart, and their teenage sons Mika and Yuval were kidnapped while the family was hiding in their safe room. His family was later freed during the first truce.

Engel was a volunteer photojournalist and ambulance driver for Magen David Adom (MADA), the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross in the southern Negev region. Under a US-brokered ceasefire agreement, Hamas returned all 20 surviving hostages and the remains of 12 deceased.