The body of slain hostage Idan Shtivi was recently recovered from the Gaza Strip by the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security service, authorities announced on Saturday.

On Friday, the IDF announced it had recovered the bodies of slain hostage Ilan Weiss and of a second hostage, whom it did not identify at the time.

Shtivi, now confirmed as the second slain hostage whose body was recovered in the operation, was murdered at the Nova music festival during the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023, onslaught in southern Israel.

Shtivi, 28, was a nature lover and photography enthusiast who had been studying sustainability and government at Herzliya’s Reichman University.

His body was identified at the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine.

In a statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Shtivi “a man of great courage and heart.”

“On October 7, 2023, he took part in the Nova music festival, and when the terrorist attack began, he acted to rescue and save many participants at the party,” said Netanyahu.

He was seized by Hamas terrorists at the desert rave, where he had volunteered to photograph the event.

He joined the party at 6 a.m. — just half an hour before the attack started — and called his girlfriend at 7, telling her about the missiles overhead and that he was leaving.

Shtivi left in his car with two friends, but was blocked by the terrorists on the road heading north. He then turned the car around and started driving south, but was driven off the road, lost control of the vehicle and hit a tree.

He was last seen in that location, and the car was later found full of bullet holes and blood. His friends’ bodies were found at the scene.

In a statement Saturday night, the Prime Minister’s Office said Netanyahu had spoken with both hostages’ families.

Netanyahu “praised the courage of Ilan and Idan, who acted on October 7 to save lives,” the PMO says, adding that he had stressed to the families that Israel was “working tirelessly to return all hostages, the living and the dead alike.”

In a separate statement, Defense Minister Israel Katz sent his “deepest condolences” to Shtivi’s family, and praised his bravery.

Netanyahu and Katz both promised to bring back the remaining 48 hostages. Twenty of them are believed to be alive, there are grave concerns for two others, and the other 26 have been confirmed as dead.

The government’s hostage point-man, Gal Hirsch, wrote on X that he and IDF representatives had gone to the home of Shtivi’s family to inform them of the return of their son’s body.

President Isaac Herzog, in a statement, said he hoped the return of Shtivi’s body “will bring a measure of comfort to his beloved parents, Eli and Dalit, and to his siblings, who have shown remarkable strength in their determined struggle for his return.”

“These moments of deep sorrow remind us of one truth: Hamas’s crimes are crimes against humanity. The world must act with moral clarity and press for the release of all the hostages. Every last one,” he said.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid wrote on X: “We will remember Idan’s smile forever. Idan, who chose to stay and try to save his friends who danced for life.”

“Dalit and Eli, I’m sending you and all your family a strong embrace. Everyone who met you along the way knows how you fought for Idan and for all the hostages,” he added, addressing the slain Israeli’s parents.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum issued a statement expressing “our deep gratitude to the IDF and security forces who operated, and continue to operate, with dedication and courage, and brought about Idan’s return.”

It also thanked the professionals who took part in identifying Shtivi’s remains.

“The complicated identification process, which took a number of days, is a difficult and painful reminder of the material risk of the fallen disappearing under the ruins of Gaza,” the forum said.

“The return of the hostages is the key to achieving an Israeli victory, it is the only path to healing and national recovery. The nation of Israel wants to see all the hostages home, [the living] for rescue and rehabilitation, and [the dead] for a fitting burial, in a comprehensive deal.”

The smaller Tikva Forum, made up of more hawkish relatives of abductees who have opposed the hostage-ceasefire deals with Hamas so far, also issued a statement thanking the IDF and security forces for retrieving Shtivi’s body, and sending condolences to the slain Israeli’s family.

Shtivi’s return was announced as thousands demonstrated across Israel, calling for a deal with Hamas to secure the return of all the hostages in exchange for a permanent end to the war, as the government prepares for a security cabinet meeting on Sunday at which it reportedly does not plan to discuss a deal on the table that Hamas said earlier this month it agreed to.

The deal, crafted by Egypt and Qatar and approved by Hamas on August 18, envisions the release of 10 hostages along with the bodies of 18 slain captives in five batches over a 60-day ceasefire, during which the sides will hold talks on the terms of the release of the remaining hostages and a permanent end to the war.

The government has yet to formally discuss the proposed deal, and despite it being nearly identical to an offer crafted by US special envoy Steve Witkoff and approved by Jerusalem only last month, it has signaled that it has no interest in pursuing it, preferring instead to push forward with a plan to capture and control Gaza City.

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 48 hostages, including 47 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of 26 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty hostages are believed to be alive and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.

Hamas released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives during a ceasefire between January and March, and one additional hostage, a dual American-Israeli citizen, in May as a “gesture” to the United States. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that in the early weeks of the war. In exchange, Israel has freed some 2,000 jailed Palestinian terrorists, security prisoners, and Gazan terror suspects detained during the war.

Eight hostages have been rescued from captivity by troops alive, and the bodies of 51 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors, and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014.