NAHARIYA, Israel — Israel said 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 U.S. envoys met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about next steps.
The return of the remaining hostage, Ran Gvili, has been widely seen as removing the remaining obstacle to moving ahead with opening the Rafah crossing and proceeding with the U.S.-brokered ceasefire’s second phase.
Late Sunday, Netanyahu’s office in a statement said: “Upon completion of this operations, and in accordance with what has been agreed upon with the United States, Israel will open the Rafah crossing.” It gave no details on how long that would be, but Israeli military officials were quoted in local media as saying the operation could take days to complete.
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 Oct. 10. Before Sunday, 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.
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.
