Israel said on Wednesday the Red Cross had handed over remains in Gaza that Hamas militants say belong to a hostage.
Once the remains are returned to Israel, they will be examined by forensics experts to determine whether they belong to either of the two last hostages in Gaza.
"Israel has received, via the Red Cross, the coffin of a deceased hostage, which was delivered to (army) and Shin Bet (internal security service) forces in the Gaza Strip," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.
"The coffin of the deceased hostage ... crossed the border into the State of Israel a short while ago and is on its way to the National Institute for Forensic Medicine, where identification procedures will be carried out," the Israeli army said in a statement.
The military did not specify whether what was discovered were the remains of one of the last two Gaza hostages but the premier's office said authorities were in "continuous contact" with their families.
The two hostage bodies still in Gaza are Israeli Ran Gvili and Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak.
Gvili was an Israeli police officer who helped people escape from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, and was killed fighting at another location.
Sudthisak Rinthalak was an agricultural worker from Thailand who had been employed at Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the hardest-hit communities in the attack.
A total of 31 workers from Thailand were abducted from Israel by Hamas on October 7, making them the largest group of foreigners to be held in captivity. The Thai Foreign Ministry has said in addition to the hostages, 46 Thais have been killed during the war.
Read moreWhy were so many Thai nationals taken hostage by Hamas?
Earlier on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said forensic testing showed that partial remains returned by militants on Tuesday did not match either of the hostages still in Gaza.
Palestinian militants later said they had found more remains in northern Gaza and turned them over to the Red Cross, which is acting as an intermediary.
Twenty living hostages and the remains of 26 others have been returned to Israel by Hamas since the ceasefire began in early October.
The return of all the hostages taken by Hamas on October 7, 2023, is a key element of the first phase of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. In exchange, Israel has been releasing 15 Palestinian bodies for the remains of each hostage.
The Gaza Health Ministry said the total number of remains received so far is 330 but Gaza health officials said they have only been able to identify a fraction of the bodies, and the process is complicated by a lack of DNA testing kits.
Once the last hostages' remains are returned and Israel releases more Palestinian prisoners, the US-backed ceasefire plan is supposed to advance to the next phases, which call for creating an international stabilisation force, forming a technocratic Palestinian government and disarming Hamas.
The exchanges have gone ahead even as Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating other terms of the deal.
Israeli officials have accused Hamas of handing over partial remains in some instances and staging the discovery of bodies in others.
Hamas has accused Israel of opening fire on civilians and restricting the flow of humanitarian aid into the territory.
(FRANCE 24 with AP and AFP)
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