Israel received via the Red Cross a coffin which, according to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), contains the body of one of the last two hostages still dead in Gaza, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s office.
Israeli forces will now transfer the bodies to the Israeli National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv for identification.
The PIJ’s military wing announced earlier that it had found the body of a hostage in northern Gaza.
The handover came hours after the Israeli prime minister’s office said tests showed that another set of remains received from Hamas on Tuesday did not belong to any of the dead hostages.
One of the two men is Ran Gvili, a 24-year-old Israeli police officer, and the other is Suthisak Rintalak, a 43-year-old Thai farm worker.
Israeli and Thai authorities say both were killed during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and their bodies were later transported to Gaza.
As part of the first phase of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement that came into effect on October 10, Hamas agreed to return the 20 living Israeli hostages and the bodies of the 28 dead Israeli and foreign hostages still in Gaza within 72 hours.
All living hostages were released on October 13 in exchange for 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,718 Gaza detainees.
So far, the remains of 23 dead Israeli hostages have been handed over, along with those of three foreign hostages – including one Thai, one Nepalese and one Tanzanian.
In exchange, Israel returned the bodies of 345 Palestinians killed during the war.
Israel accused Hamas of deliberately delaying the recovery of the hostages’ bodies, while Hamas insisted it was having difficulty finding them under the rubble.
The slow progress means there has been no progress in the second phase of President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan. This includes plans for the governance of Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli troops, the disarmament of Hamas and reconstruction.
The two dead hostages still in Gaza were among 251 people kidnapped by Hamas and its allies on October 7, 2023, when around 1,200 other people were killed.
Israel responded to the attack by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 70,100 people were killed, according to the Hamas-run territory’s Health Ministry.
