A senior Hamas official has told AFP that the Palestinian militant group was prepared to release all remaining hostages in a single swap during the second phase of the Gaza truce.
"We have informed the mediators that Hamas is ready to release all hostages in one batch during the second phase of the agreement, rather than in stages, as in the current first phase," said Taher al-Nunu.
Mr Nunu did not clarify how many hostages were currently held by Hamas or other militant groups.
He said this step was meant "to confirm our seriousness and complete readiness to move forward in resolving this issue, as well as to continue steps towards cementing the ceasefire and achieving a sustainable truce".
Israel and Hamas are currently in the process of implementing the first phase of the truce, which began on 19 January.
Since then, 19 Israeli hostages have been released by militants in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails.
After the completion of the first phase, 58 hostages will remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
'Held onto hope'
Hamas also agreed yesterday to return the bodies of eight dead hostages in two groups this week and next.
Hamas is set to release the remains of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Kfir and Ariel, who have become national symbols in Israel of the hostages' ordeal.
The boys' father Yarden Bibas was taken hostage separately on 7 October, 2023, and was released alive during an earlier hostage-prisoner swap.
The armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad said that it would release the body of Israeli hostage Oded Lifshitz.
The group said Mr Lifshitz was one of the hostages killed during Israeli strikes on Gaza.
An Israeli group campaigning for the release of hostages held in Gaza said it had received the "heart-shattering" news of the deaths of three members of the Bibas family.
"We received the heart-shattering news that Shiri Bibas, her children Ariel and Kfir, and Oded Lifshitz are no longer with us," the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.
"This news cuts like a knife through our hearts, the families' hearts and the hearts of people all over the world."
While their deaths are largely accepted as fact abroad after Hamas said they were killed in an Israeli air strike early in the war, Israel has never confirmed the claim.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it has received the names of the hostages whose bodies Hamas is set to hand over tomorrow.
"Israel has received the list of deceased hostages who are scheduled to be released tomorrow as part of the (Gaza truce) framework," it said in a statement, adding that it had "updated the families of the hostages through IDF (military) representatives."
Hamas will also release six living hostages on Saturday, including Hisham al-Sayed and Avera Mengisto, who were held in Gaza before the start of war there.
The national forensic institute in Tel Aviv has mobilised 10 doctors to expedite the identification process, public broadcaster Kan reported on Wednesday.
Hamas and its allies took 251 people hostage during the 7 October, 2023 attack on Israel, of whom 70 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
The October attack resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,297 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.
