President Donald Trump hailed the return of the final Israeli hostage’s remains from Gaza on Monday as an “impossible” outcome achieved — then declared it is time to pivot to Phase II of his Gaza framework: “Now we have to disarm Hamas.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced Monday that it had located, recovered, and identified the body of Sgt. 1st Class Ran Gvili — the last Israeli hostage held in Gaza — closing out the hostage return track under the ceasefire deal’s first phase.
Trump credited his team for the outcome in a Truth Social post, writing: “Just recovered the last Hostage body in GAZA. Thus, got back ALL 20 of the living Hostages, and ALL of the Dead! AMAZING JOB! Most thought of it as an impossible thing to do. Congratulations to my great team of Champions!!!”
In interviews with Axios and Israeli television, Trump said Hamas aided efforts to recover Gvili’s remains, describing a grim search and identification process. “They worked very hard to get the body back,” Trump said, adding that teams “had to go through hundreds of bodies.”
With the final recovery completed, Trump stressed the agreement’s next step. “Now we need to disarm Hamas, as they promised,” he said, arguing that skeptics were wrong before — and could be wrong again now.
“Nobody believed we would bring back all the hostages. It was a great moment,” Trump said, adding that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner briefed him Monday morning before he spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who Trump said “was thrilled.”
Trump asked that his message be relayed to the family. “Please tell the parents that I am very happy,” he said.
At the White House press briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called the return of the last remaining hostage’s body “a huge foreign policy feat,” saying the president “made the impossible possible,” while also pointing to the administration’s broader Gaza track tied to postwar rebuilding.
In Israel, Netanyahu called Gvili’s return “an extraordinary achievement,” saying it was an achievement “for the Israel Defense Forces, the State of Israel, the citizens of Israel,” and emphasizing the promise he said Israel kept: “We promised, and I promised, to bring everyone back, and we brought everyone back, down to the last one.”
Netanyahu later addressed the Knesset and recited the Shehecheyanu — a Jewish blessing of gratitude traditionally said upon reaching a significant moment — before announcing that there are “no more hostages in Gaza” and thanking Trump, Witkoff, and Kushner for their “great and important support.”
He also ceremonially removed the yellow hostage pin from his lapel, saying that “now that the mission is accomplished, it’s time to take it off,” while stressing the next phase “is not rehabilitation, but the disarmament of Hamas and demilitarization of Gaza.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz likewise thanked Netanyahu for “leadership and determination,” and thanked Trump “for the assistance and friendship,” praising Israeli forces for bringing home “all the hostages until the last hostage.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the country had reached “the moment we have been waiting 843 days for,” describing the end of the hostage ordeal as a national turning point. Herzog said his residence “finally removed the yellow chair” kept in solidarity with the captives, and noted it was “particularly symbolic” to mark the moment alongside U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee as they thanked Trump for “exceptional leadership and commitment to bringing home every last hostage.”
The completion of Phase I now places maximum pressure on the deal’s Phase II centerpiece: Hamas’s disarmament.
That sequencing mirrors the administration’s wider Gaza framework unveiled last week in Davos, where Trump launched the newly formed Board of Peace and described it as a body that could be “one of the most consequential” ever created, with Gaza named as a central focus after Hamas agreed to the broader U.S.-backed plan.
At Davos, Kushner outlined a “New Gaza” rebuild vision aimed at transforming the territory into an economic hub by 2035 — a plan he repeatedly tied to verified demilitarization, arguing reconstruction cannot begin without security and that the framework is singular and fixed.
Trump reinforced that same condition in his Davos warning, saying Hamas has agreed to give up its weapons and, “If they don’t do it, they’ll be blown away very quickly” — language he echoed again Monday after Gvili’s return, insisting the next move is disarmament.
Kushner, in separate remarks cited Monday, framed the recovery as both a conclusion and a pivot, praising coordination among the U.S., Israel, and regional actors and arguing that helping Gaza begin “a new chapter free from the tyranny of Hamas” is essential to preventing future bloodshed. “This is an end, but also a new beginning,” he said.
Israeli- and U.S.-backed officials meanwhile described the hostage track as fully resolved — “the table is clean,” as one Board of Peace official put it — while warning that the “strategic obstacle to everything is disarmament,” with parallel tracks now moving at once: border arrangements, temporary solutions, long-term rebuilding, and a technocratic administration expected to assume civil governance inside Gaza.
With Gvili finally home, Trump’s message on Monday was that the hostage chapter is closed — and the disarmament test is next.
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
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