Israel said on Sunday that its military was carrying out a “large-scale operation” in Gaza to recover the body of the last remaining hostage, adding that the Rafah crossing with Egypt would only reopen once the mission was completed.
The announcement came as Israel’s cabinet met to consider reopening the crossing, and a day after senior US envoys reportedly urged prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow the passage of aid through the key border point.
Israel’s insistence on the return of the final hostage, Ran Gvili, has been widely viewed as the main obstacle to reopening Rafah and moving into the second phase of a US-brokered ceasefire. The crossing had been expected to reopen during the first phase of Donald Trump’s plan to end the war last October.
Israel has made the reopening conditional on the return of all living hostages held by Palestinian militant groups in Gaza, as well as what it described as a “100% effort” by Hamas to locate and return the bodies of those who died in captivity. All have been returned except Gvili, a police officer.
In a statement, Netanyahu’s office said the military was conducting a focused search to exhaust all available intelligence in an effort to locate and recover the remains of “the fallen hostage, Master Sgt Ran Gvili”.
The statement added that once the operation was concluded, Israel would reopen the Rafah crossing.
On Thursday, Ali Shaath, head of a US-backed transitional Palestinian committee set up to temporarily administer Gaza, said the crossing would reopen this week. Rafah is effectively the only route in or out of Gaza for most of the more than two million people living there.
The Gaza side of the crossing has been under Israeli military control since 2024.
While Israel has previously carried out searches for Gvili, the military released more details than usual about the current operation. It said troops were searching a cemetery in northern Gaza near the so-called “yellow line”, marking areas under Israeli control.
An Israeli military official said Gvili may have been buried in the Shuja’iya–Daraj Tuffah area. The official said rabbis and dental experts were accompanying specialised search teams. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the operation was ongoing.
Gvili’s family has urged the government not to proceed to the second phase of the ceasefire until his remains are returned.
Pressure to move forward has nonetheless grown, with the Trump administration stating in recent days that the second phase has already begun.
Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of delaying efforts to recover the final hostage. Hamas said on Sunday that it had shared all the information it had about Gvili’s remains and accused Israel of obstructing searches in areas of Gaza under its military control.
Separately, the headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in East Jerusalem was set on fire overnight, days after Israeli bulldozers demolished parts of the compound.
It was not immediately clear who started the fire. Israeli settlers were seen overnight removing furniture from the main building, according to Roland Friedrich, the agency’s West Bank director, who said holes had been cut in the fence.
Israel’s fire service said it sent crews to stop the blaze from spreading. In May 2024, the agency said it closed the compound after settlers set fire to its perimeter fence.
Unrwa’s commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini, described the incident as the latest attack on the United Nations amid efforts to dismantle the status of Palestinian refugees.
Unrwa provides aid and services to 2.5 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as around three million more in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.
Its operations were curtailed last year after Israel’s parliament passed legislation cutting ties with the agency and banning it from operating in areas Israel defines as its territory, including East Jerusalem.
Israel has long accused Unrwa of being infiltrated by Hamas and has alleged that some staff members were involved in the 2023 attack that triggered the war in Gaza. The agency has said it took swift action against those accused and has denied claims that it tolerates or cooperates with Hamas.
