Jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli forces brought home on Monday the remains of the last hostage held in Gaza, Ran Gvili, finally closing the chapter on a painful saga that has haunted Israeli society since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.

Militants took 251 hostages to Gaza that day, and the process of returning them has dragged over the course of the ensuing war, playing out in a series of ceasefire and prisoner-swap deals as well as efforts to rescue them militarily – some successful, others not.

Gvili’s coffin was accompanied by a convoy of cars with blaring sirens and flashing lights, passing civilians waving Israeli flags on the side of the road.

At a ceremony held at a military base near Gaza, the slain police officer’s father, Ytzik Gvili, addressed his son’s coffin, saying: “You should see the honours we’re giving you here.”

“I’m proud of you my son,” he added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lauded Gvili as “a hero of Israel”.

The most recent set of hostage handovers were part of the US-backed Gaza ceasefire deal that took effect on October 10, aiming to halt more than two years of fighting that has devastated the Palestinian territory.

Hamas said it provided information as to the location of Gvili’s body, and spokesman Hazem Qassem said Monday that his recovery “confirms Hamas’s commitment to all the requirements of the ceasefire agreement”.

The first phase of the US-backed deal stipulated the return of every hostage, and Gvili’s family had expressed strong opposition to moving on to the second phase before they had received his remains.

- Killed in action -

Gvili’s mother Talik on Monday called her son’s return “amazing”.

“We’ve come full circle – he’s finally coming home, we can’t believe it,” she told Israel’s public broadcaster KAN. “They found him intact, dressed in his uniform.”

The Israeli military said in a statement on Monday that it had definitively identified Gvili and was repatriating his remains.

“With this, all hostages have been returned from the Gaza Strip to the State of Israel,” it added.

Footage released by the military showed Gvili’s coffin draped in an Israeli flag and surrounded by soldiers singing the national anthem.

The young Israeli police officer in the elite Yassam unit was on medical leave ahead of shoulder surgery when Hamas launched its deadly 2023 attack on Israel.

Instead of staying home, the 24-year-old motorcycle enthusiast grabbed his gun and raced toward the area of the attack in southern Israel.

Nicknamed the “Defender of Alumim” by his family and the kibbutz of that name, Gvili was killed in combat near the community and his body taken to Gaza by Hamas militants.

- ‘Many difficult years’ -

Netanyahu called the return of all the hostages an “extraordinary achievement”.

“We brought them all back, down to the very last captive,” he added.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog also celebrated Gvili’s return, saying that “for the first time since 2014, there are no Israeli citizens held hostage in Gaza. An entire nation prayed and waited for this moment.”

Prior to October 2023, two civilian hostages and the bodies of two Israeli soldiers killed in previous wars were being held in the territory.

US President Donald Trump offered his congratulations on his Truth Social platform, adding: “Most thought of it as an impossible thing to do.”

The announcement came after visiting US envoys reportedly pushed Israeli officials to reopen Gaza’s Rafah crossing – a vital entry point for aid – even before Gvili’s remains were returned.

Israeli officials said on Monday that though they would open the crossing, only pedestrians would be allowed to travel through it to Egypt.

“I live with the hope that I will travel with my husband and children to Egypt, and then to anywhere in the world, as soon as the crossing opens,” Maha Youssef, a displaced Palestinian from Gaza City, told AFP.

Netanyah said later on Monday that Israel was now “at the doorstep of the next phase” of the deal.

“The next phase is disarming Hamas and demilitarising the Gaza Strip,” he added.

While the ceasefire plan demands the group’s disarmament in the second phase, Hamas has so far refused to commit.

- ‘True friend’ -

In a statement, the Israeli group representing the families of hostages held in Gaza described Gvili as “a true friend, loved by everyone”.

“We can finally say: there are no longer any hostages in Gaza,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said after Gvili’s return.

The group has worked since the outset of the war to keep the plight of the captives in the public eye, organising regular rallies at a plaza in Tel Aviv that has come to be known as Hostages Square, where some supporters gathered again on Monday evening.

“I’m very emotional,” said Orna Cheled, 70, who was wearing a pendant shaped like a yellow ribbon, a symbol of the hostages.

“I’ve been wearing this with me throughout this whole period and tomorrow I’m removing it, because (Gvili) will be laid to rest with dignity, in the country he loved so much.”

Central Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said on Monday it had received nine living Palestinian detainees released by Israel after Gvili’s recovery.

Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel’s retaliation has left at least 71,660 people dead in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.