On November 5, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced the receipt of a coffin of a deceased hostage from the Red Cross in Gaza, the latest handover of these remains in Gaza. Since the ceasefire began on October 13, Hamas has freed 20 living hostages and transferred the remains of 22 deceased hostages. “Hamas is required to uphold the agreement and take the necessary steps to return all the deceased hostages,” the IDF said on November 5.
After the remains are handed to the Red Cross by Hamas, they are transferred to the IDF and the Israel Security Agency and sent to the National Center of Forensic Medicine for identification. On November 4, Hamas transferred Chen’s remains, and his family was informed that he had been returned after identification was complete. Chen had been the last remaining American hostage held in Gaza.
On November 5, Israeli media noted that the “remaining slain hostages are Meny Godard, Hadar Goldin, Ran Gvili, Joshua Loitu Mollel, Dror Or, Lior Rudaeff, and Sudthisak Rinthalak.” Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office said on November 5 that “we will not compromise on this and will spare no effort until we return all of the fallen hostages, every last one of them.”
On November 2, Hamas had transferred the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers Colonel Asaf Hamami, Captain Omer Neutra, and Staff Sergeant Oz Daniel. Neutra also held American citizenship. One of the deceased still held in Gaza is the body of Hadar Goldin, an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014 and has been held for more than 10 years by Hamas. Goldin’s father told Ynet that Hamas knows where his son’s remains are located.
Rumors and reports on social media had indicated that Goldin’s body may be held by Hamas members who are trapped underground in Rafah in an area controlled by the Israeli military. However, the IDF clarified on November 5 that “there is no information in the IDF’s possession indicating that Hadar Goldin’s body is located in a tunnel where Hamas terrorists are present in the Rafah area.”
The issue of Hamas members in Rafah has led to discussions on how best to remove them without a clash that could upset the ceasefire. Axios noted that “the Trump administration wants to use a crisis over Hamas militants who got ‘stuck’ in tunnels behind Israeli lines in Gaza to develop a model for disarming the group, two U.S. officials with knowledge of the issue tell Axios.” An apparent proposed approach would involve Hamas members in Rafah emerging from the tunnels and handing over weapons in exchange for safe passage. The arms could be handed to a third party, which Axios noted might include Egypt, Qatar, or Turkey.
The mediation in Gaza is made possible by the ceasefire and new mechanisms that are in place to coordinate between countries and groups. One of the keys to this effort is the Civil-Military Coordination Center, backed by US Central Command (CENTCOM), in Israel’s Kiryat Gat near Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Civil-Military Coordination Center on October 29 and spoke about the “disarming of Hamas and the demilitarization of Gaza. … We are working on this in stages, together with other components of the plan.”
Tensions in Gaza amidst the ceasefire continue. The IDF confirmed on November 5 that it had killed Zaid Zaki Abd al Hadi, a Hamas terrorist who was involved in holding hostages in the past, in an airstrike on October 29, 2025. In another statement on November 5, the IDF noted that troops had uncovered a “weapons storage facility belonging to the Hamas terror organization” in the area of Shujaiyya in northern Gaza. This location is inside the Israeli military’s area of control in Gaza that is demarcated by the “Yellow Line.”
