Israel has received a coffin that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad said contained a hostage, the Israeli military said.
Hamas’ armed wing said the body was found on Friday in Khan Yoenis in southern Gaza. The body was brought to Israel by the Red Cross for identification.
Before this handover, Hamas returned all 20 hostages to 23 of 22 of the 28 dead hostages under the first phase of a cease-fire on 10 October. Five of the six dead hostages in Gaza were Israelis and one was Thai.
Israel has criticized Hamas for not returning all the bodies. Hamas says they are hard to find under the trash.
During the first phase of the US-CRUIDFED ASTELFIRE CHROUNTSFIRE, Israel released 250 Palestinian prisoners from prisons and 1,718 prisoners from Gaza.
Israel also gave the bodies of 285 Palestinians in exchange for the bodies of 19 Israeli hostages returned to Hamas, one of them Thai, one Tanzanian.
The parties also agreed to increase aid to the Gaza Strip, a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces, and brutally accused each other of violating the agreement.
Israel launched airstrikes after accusing Hamas fighters of The killing of two of its soldiers on 19 October and on Kill another Soldier on 28 October. Hamas said it was unaware of the explosions at the site of the first incident and had no connection to the second attack.
Israeli military actions have killed at least 241 people since the start of the ceasefire, according to the Hamas-Run Health Mismister, whose figures are seen by the UN as reliable.
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack that killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 251 others hostage. All but one of the dead Gaza fighters were captured in the attack.
At least 68,875 people have been killed in Israel’s attack on Gaza since then, the Ministry of Health reported.