Israel on Wednesday laid to rest the last hostage from Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned at the funeral that the country’s enemies would pay a heavy price for any future aggression.Netanyahu’s threat came as Hamas told AFP it was prepared to carry out a full transfer of governance in Gaza to a 15-member Palestinian technocratic committee established under a US-backed ceasefire plan.Hundreds of tearful mourners packed a stadium in southern Israel on Wednesday for the funeral of Ran Gvili, the last Gaza hostage whose burial marked the end of a painful national saga triggered by Hamas’s 2023 attack.Israeli forces on Monday brought home the remains of Gvili, who was killed in action and whose body Palestinian militants took into Gaza during their attack.A large banner bearing Gvili’s portrait hung inside a stadium in Meitar, the hometown of the 24-year-old police officer, where crowds gathered for his funeral before he was laid to rest.In front of the sombre crowd, which included tearful family members, Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog, Gvili’s coffin lay draped in an Israeli flag.”I hoped you would come back on your own two feet, and that gave me strength,” said his mother Talik Gvili in her eulogy, describing her son as “the first to leave, last to return”.”For two years and four months, we talked about you constantly, and you became everyone’s child,” she added. “Rani, you are with me all the time.” Herzog hailed the return of his remains but said he could only regret not having known Gvili while he was alive.”Gvili family, I ask you, as president, for forgiveness that we were not there for him… an entire nation mourns with you today,” he said during the ceremony.An officer in the elite Yassam unit, Gvili was on medical leave ahead of shoulder surgery when Hamas launched its deadly attack in southern Israel, but grabbed his gun and raced towards the area.Of the 251 hostages taken by militants on that day, Gvili’s were the last remains held in the Palestinian territory.”Know this, you cowards: Rani and the martyrs give us the strength to erase you from the world, to erase evil, to wipe out the seed of Hamas and (Islamic) Jihad,” Talik Gvili told the crowd of mourners, referring to the two Palestinian militant groups.- ‘Hero of Israel’ -Netanyahu described Gvili as a “hero of Israel” and announced the creation of a new village in his honour as he offered his eulogy.He warned Israel’s enemies that they would pay a heavy price if they attacked Israel.”We are determined to complete our missions: to disarm Hamas and demilitarise Gaza, and we will succeed. Let our enemies know that anyone who raises a hand against Israel will pay an exorbitant price,” he said.The return of the hostages from Gaza dragged on over the course of the war between Israel and Hamas in a series of ceasefire and prisoner-swap deals as well as efforts to rescue them militarily.The most recent set of hostage handovers was part of the US-backed Gaza ceasefire deal that took effect on October 10.The first phase of the deal stipulated the return of every hostage, and Gvili’s family had opposed moving on to the second phase before they had received his remains.Nicknamed the “Defender of Alumim” by his family and the kibbutz of that name, Gvili was killed in combat during the October attack.Earlier, a hush had fallen over the stadium as a large screen broadcast the arrival of the coffin carrying his body. As some in the crowd began to cry, only muffled sobs broke the silence.Hundreds of onlookers clutching Israeli flags had lined the roads as a convoy carrying Gvili’s body headed from the military base Camp Shura in central Israel towards Meitar under an overcast sky.- ‘Suffering is immense’ -“Today, my brother, this hero, has come home… you are the pride of the entire nation,” said Gvili’s brother Omri during the ceremony.”Our suffering is immense, but the pride we feel for you is even greater.”On Tuesday, Netanyahu said that Israel had “fully completed the sacred mission of returning all of our hostages”.Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem meanwhile said the group was ready to transfer the governance of Gaza to the Palestinian committee.”Protocols are prepared, files are complete, and committees are in place to oversee the handover, ensuring a complete transfer of governance in the Gaza Strip across all sectors to the technocratic committee,” Qassem said.The committee is charged with managing the day-to-day governance of post-war Gaza and will work under the supervision of the “Board of Peace”, chaired by US President Donald Trump.bur-vid-acc-jd/jsa

President Donald Trump on Wednesday warned time is running out for Iran to come to the table and avoid US military action, provoking Tehran to retort that it would respond to any attack “like never before”.Trump has not ruled out an attack after this month’s deadly crackdown on protests. Last June, the US carried out a night of strikes on Iranian nuclear sites during Israel’s 12-day war against the Islamic republic. A US naval strike group that Trump described as an “armada” led by aircraft carrier the USS Abraham Lincoln is now lurking in Middle East waters.A rights group said that it has verified over 6,200 deaths, mostly of protesters killed by security forces, in the wave of demonstrations that rocked the clerical leadership since late December but peaked on January 8 and 9.Activists say that the actual toll could be many times higher, with an internet shutdown still complicating efforts to confirm information about the scale of the killings.In his latest post on Truth Social, Trump did not mention the protests but said Iran needed to negotiate a deal over its nuclear programme, which the West believes is aimed at making an atomic bomb.”Hopefully Iran will quickly ‘Come to the Table’ and negotiate a fair and equitable deal — NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS — one that is good for all parties. Time is running out, it is truly of the essence!” said Trump.Referring to American strikes against Iranian nuclear targets during the June war which he said resulted in “major destruction of Iran”, he added: “The next attack will be far worse! Don’t make that happen again”.In response Iran’s mission to the United Nations posted a screenshot of Trump’s threat on X and wrote: “Iran stands ready for dialogue based on mutual respect and interests — BUT IF PUSHED, IT WILL DEFEND ITSELF AND RESPOND LIKE NEVER BEFORE!”Analysts say US options include strikes on military facilities or targeted hits against the leadership under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a full-scale bid to bring down the system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the shah.- ‘Severe damage’ -But Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said before Trump’s comments were published that “conducting diplomacy through military threat cannot be effective or useful”.”If they want negotiations to take shape, they must certainly set aside threats, excessive demands and raising illogical issues,” he said in televised comments.Araghchi said he had “no contact” with US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff in recent days and that “Iran has not sought negotiations”.Iranian armed forces chief of staff Habibollah Sayyari warned the US against any “miscalculation”, saying that “they too would suffer damage”.Following a call on Tuesday between Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and de facto Saudi leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Iran reached out to other US allies in the region, in an apparent bid to rally support.The Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani spoke with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who is also foreign minister, both sides said.Sheikh Mohammed emphasised Qatar’s support for “all efforts aimed at reducing escalation and achieving peaceful solutions”, the Qatari foreign ministry said.Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty meanwhile held separate calls with both Araghchi and Witkoff, Cairo said.Abdelatty stressed the need to intensify efforts to “ease tensions and work towards deescalation” and resuming dialogue, the Egyptian foreign ministry said.Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told Al-Jazeera television: “It’s wrong to attack Iran. It’s wrong to start the war again.” He urged Washington to reopen talks on the nuclear standoff.- ‘New dimensions of crackdown’ -In an updated toll, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said it had confirmed that 6,221 people had been killed, including 5,856 protesters, 100 minors, 214 members of the security forces and 49 bystanders.But the group added it was still investigating another 17,091 possible fatalities. At least 42,324 people have been arrested, it said.HRANA warned that security forces were searching hospitals for wounded protesters, saying this highlighted “new dimensions of the continued security crackdown”.HRANA said a trial in Malard outside Tehran on Tuesday of a man accused over the death of a police officer was the first such hearing linked to the protests. Images of the hearing were broadcast on state television in Iran. It was a “starting point for a broad series of trials” that would be “aimed at imposing severe penalties on protesters”, HRANA said.Meanwhile, Iran on Wednesday executed a man arrested last year on charges of spying for Israel’s Mossad spy agency, the judiciary said. Rights groups fear some protesters could also face the death penalty.