AFP via Getty ImagesIsrael said Hamas, through the Red Cross, received a coffin containing the body of another hostage held in Gaza.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had taken the coffin from Gaza to Israel, where forensic tests would be used to identify the remains.
If confirmed as hostages, Hamas will return 16 of the 28 dead Israelis and foreigners it was holding before the ceasefire began two weeks ago.
The handover came after the Israeli government said it had allowed Hamas fighters into territory inside the IDF-controlled Gaza Strip to help Red Cross and Egyptian personnel search for remaining hostages.
Israel has accused Hamas of violating a cease-fire agreement brokered by the United States, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey by failing to repatriate all of the hostages’ bodies.
The Palestinian militant group said it was committed to the deal but needed help finding remains buried in the rubble left behind by two years of war.
“Red Cross, Egyptian technical teams and Hamas personnel were allowed to cross the IDF’s Yellow Line positions in the Gaza Strip under close supervision of the IDF,” Israeli government spokesman Shosh Bedrosian said at a briefing Monday afternoon.
She also said the Egyptians would bring more equipment, including “tractor-type vehicles.”
On Sunday, she said they were using two to three excavators and a similar number of trucks to carry out the search.
Shortly after the ceasefire went into effect on October 10, all 20 living Israeli hostages were released, in exchange for the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,718 Gaza detainees.
Israel also handed over the bodies of 195 Palestinians in exchange for the bodies of 13 Israeli hostages previously repatriated by Hamas and the bodies of two foreign hostages, a Thai and a Nepalese.
Of the hostages who died among those still in Gaza before their return Monday night, 11 were Israelis, one was Tanzanian and one was Thai.
“Hamas knows where they are and has no choice but to send them back to their country,” Bedrosian said.
ReutersEarlier, a group representing the families of Israeli hostages called on Hamas to take immediate action to hand over all the bodies. This includes delaying phase two of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan.
“The families urge the Israeli government, the U.S. administration, and mediators not to move on to the next phase of the agreement until Hamas fulfills all of its obligations,” the Forum for Families of Hostages and Missing Persons said.
This comes as Israeli media quoted an Israeli security official as saying that the Trump administration wants to move to a second phase even if all the hostages are not found.
On Saturday, Hamas’ chief negotiator, Khalil al-Haiya, said in a statement that Hamas was facing a “challenge” because Israeli forces had “changed the landscape of Gaza.”
He added, “Some of those who buried the bodies are martyred or do not remember where they buried their bodies.”
All but one of the hostages still in Gaza were among the 251 people kidnapped when Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and about 1,200 people were killed during that period.
Israel has launched a military operation in the Gaza Strip that has killed more than 68,500 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
