Israel announced Wednesday it had received hostage remains found in Gaza from the Red Cross, which were being transported to the morgue for identification.
It comes as the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas remains fragile, with both sides accusing each other of violating the terms.
Under the first phase of the deal — which came into effect in October — Palestinian militants were due to return all 48 hostages they held captive, 20 of whom were still alive.
All but the bodies of two hostages — Israeli Ran Gvili and Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak — have since been handed over, but Israel has accused Hamas of dragging their feet on returning remains.
“Israel has received, via the Red Cross, the coffin of a deceased hostage, which was delivered to (army) and Shin Bet (internal security service) forces in the Gaza Strip,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.
“The coffin of the deceased hostage… crossed the border into the State of Israel a short while ago and is on its way to the National Institute for Forensic Medicine, where identification procedures will be carried out,” the Israeli army said in a statement.
The military did not specify whether what was discovered were the remains of one of the last two Gaza hostages but the premier’s office said authorities were in “continuous contact” with their families.
Israeli police in a brief statement said they were “currently escorting, with reverence, the coffin of the fallen hostage to the National Centre of Forensic Medicine”.
A Hamas official told AFP before the Israeli statement that a team from the two groups’ armed wings had “found remains that are possibly those of an Israeli hostage” under the rubble in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza.
AFP footage from northern Gaza showed masked militants from the two groups standing on the back of a truck with a stretcher covered with a white body bag.
Diggers were busy working to remove vast piles of rubble.
– ‘No link’ in past remains –
On Wednesday morning, Netanyahu’s office said forensic tests showed remains retrieved from Gaza the day before were “not linked” to the last two dead hostages held in the Palestinian territory.
Israeli police said on Tuesday they had received the presumed remains of one of the remaining hostages and escorted what they called “the coffin of the fallen hostage” to the forensic centre.
Hamas has blamed difficulties in finding the remains beneath the sea of rubble created by the two-year war with Israel.
The Gaza Strip remains in a deep humanitarian crisis despite the ceasefire which came into effect on October 10.
Under the first phase of the deal brokered by Trump, Palestinian militants have handed over the last 20 living hostages, and so far, the remains of 26 out of 28 deceased ones.
In exchange, Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in its custody and returned the bodies of hundreds of dead Palestinians.
Militants took 251 people hostage during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the devastating war and resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.
Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 70,117 people, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
The ministry says since the ceasefire came into effect, 360 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire. Israel’s military has reported three soldiers killed during the same period.
