Hamas says it will hand over a body of a hostage as Israel says it will allow the Gaza Strip's gateway to Egypt to open in the next few days so that Palestinians who need medical care can leave the war-ravaged territory.
The handover of the last two hostages' bodies in the enclave would complete a key condition of the initial part of US President Donald Trump's plan to end the two-year Gaza Strip war, which also entails the Rafah border crossing between the strip and Egypt opening in both directions.
Israel has kept the crossing shut since the ceasefire came into effect in October, saying that Hamas must abide by the agreement to return all hostages still in the Gaza Strip, living and deceased.
Since the fragile truce started, Hamas has returned all 20 living hostages and 26 bodies in exchange for about 2000 Palestinian detainees and convicted prisoners but two more deceased captives - an Israeli police officer and a Thai agricultural worker - are still in the Gaza Strip.
The armed wing of the Hamas-allied Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, the al-Quds Brigades, said it had found a hostage body after conducting a search in the north of the Gaza Strip, along with a team from the Red Cross.
Hamas said it would hand over the remains at 5pm local time on Wednesday.
The group did not say which of the two remaining deceased hostages it believed it to be.
The two are Israeli police officer Ran Gvili and Thai citizen Sudthisak Rinthalak, both kidnapped during Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered two years of devastating war in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas had handed over remains on Tuesday to the Red Cross, which has acted as an intermediary between militant groups and Israel throughout the war.
Israeli forces said they sent the remains, which they described as "findings" for forensic testing.
"The findings brought yesterday for examination from the Gaza Strip are not linked to any of the deceased hostages," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement on Wednesday.
COGAT, the Israeli military arm that oversees humanitarian matters, said the opening of the Rafah crossing would be co-ordinated with Egypt, under the supervision of a European Union mission - a similar mechanism to that employed during a previous ceasefire agreed in January 2025.
There was currently no co-ordination between Egypt and Israel to reopen the Rafah crossing in the coming days, state-affiliated al-Qahera News TV cited Egypt's State Information Service as saying.
Before the war, the Rafah crossing was the only direct exit point for most Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to reach the outside world and was a key entry point for aid into the territory.
It has been mostly closed throughout the conflict.
At least 16,500 patients in the Gaza Strip require medical care outside of the enclave, according to the United Nations.
Some Gazans have managed to leave for medical treatment abroad through Israel.
Violence has tailed off since the October 10 ceasefire but Israel has continued to strike the strip and conduct demolitions against what it says is Hamas infrastructure.
Hamas and Israel have traded blame for violating the US-backed agreement.
Health officials at al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City said on Wednesday that two Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire in the Zeitoun suburb of Gaza City.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the report.
More than 350 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect, Gazan health authorities say.
Palestinian militants killed three Israeli soldiers during this time, Israeli authorities said.