Hamas has handed over three coffins it says contain the bodies of deceased Gaza hostages, according to the Israeli military.
Israel has received the coffins, via the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip, and transported them to Israel for formal identification.
If confirmed as deceased hostages, it would mean eight Israeli and foreign deceased hostages remain in Gaza.
Under the first phase of the US-brokered ceasefire deal with Israel that started last month, Hamas agreed to return the 20 living and 28 dead hostages it was holding.
Israel has accused Hamas of being too slow to return the deceased hostages, while Hamas has said it is working to recover bodies trapped under rubble in the territory.
Hamas’s armed wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, said the remains had been found earlier on Sunday “along the route of one of the tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip”.
Later, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official X account said: “All of the hostages’ families have been updated accordingly, and our hearts are with them in this difficult hour. The effort to return our hostages is ongoing and will not cease until the last hostage is returned.”
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum is pressing Netanyahu to act urgently to recover all remaining deceased hostages from Gaza.
“The Hostage Families demand that the prime minister act with determination and firmness in order… to return all of the deceased hostages to Israel’s hands,” the campaign group said in a statement.
Hamas and Israel have accused each other of violating the ceasefire.
On Sunday, an Israeli air strike killed a man in northern Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
The Israeli military said it had struck a militant that was posing a threat to its soldiers.
Under the first phase of the ceasefire, 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 225 Palestinians in exchange for the bodies of the 15 Israeli hostages so far returned by Hamas, along with those of two foreign hostages – one of them Thai and the other Nepalese.
Prior to Sunday, nine of the 11 dead hostages still in Gaza 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 68,500 people have been killed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
