Israel has confirmed it has received a coffin Hamas says contains the body of another hostage.
Red Cross vehicles collected the body hours after Hamas issued a joint statement with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad saying it had located it in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza.
The Israeli prime minister's office stated that the body will be transferred to Israel, where it will be received at a military ceremony before undergoing an identification process.
Confirmation that it belongs to a hostage would mean 25 out of 28 deceased hostages have been handed over to Israel under the first phase of the current ceasefire deal, which forms part of a US plan to end the Gaza war.
Under the ceasefire deal, Hamas agreed to return the 20 living and 28 dead hostages it was still holding. All the living Israeli hostages were released on 13 October in exchange for 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,718 detainees from Gaza.
For each dead Israeli hostage returned, Israel has agreed to hand over the remains of 15 Palestinians. However, the absence of DNA testing facilities in Gaza complicates identification efforts.
Hamas seized 251 hostages during a deadly assault in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, which resulted in 1,200 fatalities. In contrast, over 69,000 Palestinians are reported to have died in Israel's retaliatory response, according to figures from the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, which the UN considers reliable but Israel disputes.
Before the latest handover, of the four bodies still remaining in Gaza, three were Israeli and one was Thai.
Israel has accused Hamas of deliberately delaying the recovery of the hostages' bodies, while Hamas claims it faces challenges finding them amid the rubble.
This slow progress has hindered advancement on the second phase of US President Donald Trump's Gaza peace plan, which includes governance of Gaza, withdrawal of Israeli troops, disarmament of Hamas, and the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.
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