Israel has received a coffin through the Red Cross that Palestinian groups say contains the body of one of the last two deceased hostages still in Gaza, the Israeli prime minister's office confirmed. The remains will be transferred to Israel's National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv for identification.
Earlier, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) reported discovering a hostage's body in northern Gaza.
The handover came just hours after Israeli officials announced that tests on another set of remains received from Hamas on Tuesday showed they did not belong to either of the dead hostages.
The two hostages still in Gaza are Ran Gvili, a 24-year-old Israeli police officer, and Suthisak Rintalak, a 43-year-old Thai agricultural worker.
Israeli and Thai authorities have stated that both men were killed during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023 and that their bodies were taken to Gaza.
Under the first phase of the US-brokered ceasefire, which began on 10 October, Hamas agreed to return 20 living Israeli hostages and the remains of 28 dead hostages, including both Israeli and foreign nationals, within 72 hours.
All living hostages were released on 13 October in exchange for 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,718 detainees from Gaza.
So far, Israel has received the remains of 23 deceased Israeli hostages and three foreign hostages – one Thai, one Nepalese, and one Tanzanian. In return, Israel has handed over the bodies of 345 Palestinians killed during the conflict.
Israeli authorities accuse Hamas of deliberately delaying the return of the bodies, while Hamas says it is struggling to locate them beneath the rubble.
The slow pace of the handovers has stalled progress on the second phase of President Donald Trump's Gaza peace plan, which includes governance arrangements for Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli troops, Hamas disarmament, and reconstruction efforts.
The two deceased hostages remaining in Gaza were among 251 people abducted by Hamas and its allies on 7 October 2023, when about 1,200 others were killed.
Israel responded with a military campaign in Gaza, which has resulted in more than 70,100 deaths, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
