Authorities announced Sunday morning that 54-year-old hostage Ronen Engel Hy”d has been identified by forensic experts as one of the two bodies returned on Friday night from Gaza by Hamas.

Engel was murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, in Kibbutz Nir Oz, and his body was taken into Gaza. His wife, Karina, and their daughters, Mika and Yuval, were also kidnapped that day and later released a month later as part of a ceasefire deal.

On Friday night, the Red Cross received the caskets containing Engel’s remains and another, still-unidentified hostage from Gaza and transferred them to the IDF for formal identification.