JERUSALEM, Aug 31, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - The remains of the second of two hostages recovered from Gaza this week have been identified as belonging to the student Idan Shtivi, the Israeli prime minister's office said on Saturday.

"A special operation... in the Gaza Strip resulted in the return of the body of the late Idan Shtivi," Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement.

The Israeli military said in a statement on Friday that it had recovered the body of Ilan Weiss and the remains of a second hostage whose name was not initially released.

"After completing the identification process at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, permission was granted this evening to announce his return to Israel," the prime minister's office added.

Idan Shtivi was 28 when he was killed on October 7, 2023, at the Nova music festival, where he was attending as a photographer when it was attacked by Hamas-led militants.

He tried to flee the scene with two friends, but lost control of his car, which crashed into a tree. The car was found riddled with bullet holes.

For a year his family held out hope that he was alive, before being informed by the authorities on the eve of the first anniversary of the attack, that the young man had been killed at the festival.

The Israeli military said in a statement on Saturday that Shtivi and Weiss's bodies were recovered in a "complex rescue operation".

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group said the return of Idan Shtivi's body represented "the closing of a circle and fulfils the State of Israel's fundamental obligation to its citizens".