Israel has received via the Red Cross in Gaza a coffin which the Palestinian armed group Hamas says contains the body of a deceased hostage, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office.
Israeli forces will now transfer the remains to the National Centre of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv for identification.
Earlier, Hamas’s military wing said it had recovered the body of an Israeli soldier in the eastern Shejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City.
Israel had allowed members of the group and Red Cross staff to search for the remains in the area, which is inside territory still controlled by Israeli forces.
The Israeli government has accused Hamas of deliberately delaying the recovery of the dead hostages since a US-brokered ceasefire deal took effect on 10 October.
Hamas has insisted it is difficult to locate the bodies under rubble.
Under the ceasefire deal, Hamas agreed to return the 20 living and 28 dead hostages it was still holding within 72 hours.
All the living Israeli hostages were released on 13 October in exchange for 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,718 detainees from Gaza.
Israel has handed over the bodies of 270 Palestinians in exchange for the bodies of the 18 Israeli hostages returned by Hamas before Tuesday, along with those of two foreign hostages – one of them Thai and the other Nepalese.
Six of the eight dead hostages still in Gaza before Tuesday were Israelis, one was Tanzanian, and one was Thai.
All but one of the dead hostages still in Gaza were among the 251 people abducted during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, during which about 1,200 other people were killed.
Israel responded by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 68,800 people have been killed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Earlier on Tuesday, a hospital official in Gaza City said a man was killed by Israeli fire in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza.
The Israeli military said its troops killed a “terrorist” who had crossed the “Yellow Line”, which demarcates Israeli-controlled territory, and posed a threat to them.
