The remains of the last Israeli hostage held in the Gaza Strip have been found and will be returned home, as Australia marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
In a statement marking the day, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese linked the Holocaust to the Chanukah Massacre at Bondi Beach last month.
“We pause to reflect on an act of inhumanity so vast and horrific, it is almost beyond reckoning. Yet reckon with it we must.”
“As we give thanks for all who survived, we hold on to the memory of the victims,” Albanese said.
“We hold on to all those names, all those faces, all those stories. And, even with the passing of so much time, we are haunted by the terrible truth that they add up to six million.”
“That most infamous of numbers falls across the decades like a shadow,” Mr Albanese said.
“It holds within it the immense multitudes of Jewish lives and futures stolen with a pitiless cruelty that remains scarcely fathomable in its evil.”
He said the Holocaust represented “a ruthless campaign of extermination targeting a people simply because of who they were”, carried out with “the coldness of its calculation and the vicious discipline of its execution”.
“Entire family lines ended, communities torn apart. Lives upended, uprooted, and changed forever,” he said.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed on 27 January, marking the liberation of Auschwitz in 1945. While Israel and many Jewish communities observe Yom HaShoah later in the year, the UN-designated day has become a focal point for global reflection on the Holocaust and its enduring lessons.
More than eight decades after the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Prime Minister said the vow of “never again” must continue to be repeated.
“We repeat it because Jewish people should never have had to know such pain again,” he said. “Yet, as we have been so horrifically reminded by the 7th of October atrocity carried out by Hamas and last month’s terrorist attack at Bondi Beach, the darkness that underwrote the Holocaust is a darkness that still dwells in too many hearts.”
He said Jewish survivors found hope and safety in Australia after the Holocaust, and reaffirmed the nation’s commitment to protecting the Jewish community today.
“Just as we embraced Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust, we wrap our arms around the Jewish community now,” the Prime Minister said.
“The safety, freedom, and hope that Australia represented to the Jewish community is something we must all commit to protect.”
Adding to the significance of the day is news that broke overnight that the body of the final hostage taken during the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel has been found and will be returned to his family.
The deceased hostage SFC Ran Gvili has been identified and will be returned for burial.
According to the information and intelligence available to us, SFC Ran Gvili, 24, who served in the Israeli Police Special Forces, fell in combat on the morning of Oct. 7, 2023, and his body… https://t.co/K4vFVsF60r pic.twitter.com/TN2CWMpKEM — Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) January 26, 2026
Israeli authorities confirmed that the remains of police officer Ran Gvili, 24, had been identified, bringing to an end the search for the last remaining hostage held in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military said Gvili, who served in the Israeli Police Special Forces, fell in combat on the morning of 7 October while off duty and recovering from an injury. His body had been held in Gaza since the attack, in which 251 hostages were taken.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the recovery of Gvili’s remains as “an incredible achievement”, saying Israel had fulfilled its promise to bring all hostages home.
IDF soldiers singing after the recovery of Ran Gvili.
The song they are singing is Ani Ma’amin (“I Believe”):
“I believe with complete faith in the coming of the Messiah.
Even though he may tarry, nonetheless I will wait for him.”
It has been over 800 days. Our faith may have… pic.twitter.com/bc9R7047ra — Amit Segal (@AmitSegal) January 26, 2026
Footage aired on Israeli media showed soldiers standing arm in arm at the site where the body was discovered, singing a Hebrew song expressing hope and faith. Other images from Gaza showed what appeared to be a casket draped in the Israeli flag, surrounded by soldiers. In social media posts, Gvili’s mother Talik described her son as a hero.
The recovery of the remains is expected to allow the reopening of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, the enclave’s main gateway to the outside world. Israel has said the crossing would reopen once the remains were returned or the search operation concluded. A US-backed Palestinian committee of technocrats tasked with administering Gaza has said the border could open this week.
At the time of the October ceasefire agreement, 48 hostages remained in Gaza, with 28 believed dead, including Gvili. Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said the discovery of the remains confirmed Hamas’ commitment to the US-backed plan to end the war.
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