The Israeli military announced Thursday that the remains of a soldier, missing since 2005, have been found.

Majdi Halabi, a resident of the northern Druze village of Daliat al-Carmel, went missing under mysterious circumstances in May that year while hitchhiking from a bus station to his military base near the port city of Haifa, and was formally declared missing in action two weeks later. He was 20 at the time of his disappearance.

A tourist discovered his remains two weeks ago while hiking in a forest near Usfiya, another Druze community in the area. An army statement said that a DNA examination at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine on Thursday concluded that they belong to Pvt. Halabi.

Maj. Gen. Orna Barbivai, who heads the army's Personnel Directorate, arrived at the deceased soldier's home Thursday afternoon to notify his family that his body had been positively identified, the statement said.

The army said that the police were continuing their investigation into the circumstances of the soldier's death.

The discovery of Halabi's body caps a long saga that transfixed the Israeli public. A number of private foundations offered generous financial rewards to anyone who would provide information on his whereabouts, while the military, for its part, continued searching for him.

In April, Israel's Justice Ministry negotiated with two convicted murderers and drug dealers who offered information on the body's location, in exchange for clemency and monetary compensation.

Responding to the reported deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Army Radio at the time that he would spare no effort to locate Halabi and return all of Israel's missing and captive soldiers.

"I wouldn't say at any price, but if this missing soldier ( Halabi's) location can be found through these means, then yes, I' ll do it," Netanyahu said of the deal with the criminals.

The army on Thursday reiterated Netanyahu's pledge, saying that it will continue doing everything in its power, in conjunction with all security agencies, to return all missing soldiers to their families.