The Israeli military said the Red Cross headed to southern Gaza where it received two hostage bodies handed over as part of a ceasefire deal.
"According to information provided by the Red Cross, two coffins of deceased hostages have been transferred into their custody and are on their way to IDF and ISA forces in the Gaza Strip," the military said in a statement.
Israel says Rafah crossing to remain closed until further notice
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Gaza's Rafah crossing will remain closed until further notice, shortly after the Palestinian Embassy in Egypt said it would reopen on Monday.
"The crossing's opening will be considered based on the manner in which Hamas fulfils its part in returning the deceased hostages and implementing the agreed-upon framework," Mr Netanyahu's office said.
The Rafah crossing is the only one not controlled by Israel before the war. It has been closed since May 2024, when Israel took control of the Gaza side.
A fully reopened crossing would make it easier for Gazans to seek medical treatment, travel internationally or visit family in Egypt, which is home to tens of thousands of Palestinians.
Israel returns 15 Palestinian bodies to Gaza - ministry
Israel has returned the bodies of 15 Palestinians to Gaza today, bringing the total number handed over to 135, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said.
Under a ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump, Israel was to turn over the bodies of 15 Palestinians for every deceased Israeli returned.
It comes after the body of a deceased Israeli hostage, that Hamas returned overnight, was identified as 75-year-old Eliyahu Margalit.
The Israeli military "informed the family of the abductee Eliyahu Margalit ... that (the body of) their loved one has been returned to Israel and his identification has been completed", Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement.
It added that "we will not compromise... and will spare no effort until we return all of the fallen abductees, down to the last one".
The remains of the hostage who died in captivity were transferred to Israeli security forces in Gaza via the Red Cross, and returned to Israel for identification at a medical analysis centre, the prime minister's office said last night.
The Israeli military said the remains had been returned to Mr Margalit's family.
Mr Margalit was killed at Kibbutz Nir Oz during Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack that sparked the war in Gaza, according to a military statement.
"Eliyahu, 75 years old at the time of his death ... leaves behind a wife, three children, and grandchildren. His daughter, Nili Margalit, was also abducted and returned (under) the hostage release agreement in November 2023," the statement said.
"Hamas is required to fulfil its part of the agreement and make the necessary efforts to return all the hostages to their families," it added.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said in a statement last night that the militant group "continues to uphold its commitment to the ceasefire agreement ... and it will continue working to complete the full prisoner exchange process".
Under the ceasefire agreement, the Palestinian militant group has returned all 20 surviving hostages and the remains of 10 out of 28 known deceased ones.
Under the terms of the agreement Hamas was to hand over all of the hostages, dead and alive, before Monday morning.
UN aid chief foresees 'massive job' ahead on tour of ruined Gaza
The United Nations' aid chief took stock of the monumental task of restoring dignity and hygiene to Palestinians clinging to life in Gaza's ruins, as Israel and Hamas exchanged more bodies.
A convoy of white UN jeeps carried relief coordinator Tom Fletcher and his team through the twisted rubble of shattered homes to see a wastewater treatment plant in Sheikh Radwan, north of Gaza City.
"I drove through here seven to eight months ago when most of these buildings were still standing and, to see the devastation - this is a vast part of the city, just a wasteland - and it's absolutely devastating to see," he told AFP.
The densely populated cities of Gaza, home to more than two million Palestinians, have largely been reduced to ruins by two years of bombardment and intense fighting between Hamas and the Israeli army.
Surveying the damaged pumping equipment and a grim lake of sewage at the Sheikh Radwan wastewater plant, Mr Fletcher said the task ahead for the UN and aid agencies was a "massive, massive job".
The British diplomat said he had met residents returning to destroyed homes trying to dig latrines in the ruins.
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"They're telling me most of all they want dignity," he said.
"We've got to get the power back on so we can start to get the sanitation system back in place.
"We have a massive 60-day plan now to surge in food, get a million meals out there a day, start to rebuild the health sector, bring in tents for the winter, get hundreds of thousands of kids back into school."
According to figures supplied to mediators by the Israeli military's civil affairs agency and released by the UN humanitarian office, on Thursday some 950 trucks carrying aid and commercial supplies crossed into Gaza from Israel.
Relief agencies have called for the Rafah border crossing from Egypt to be reopened to speed the flow of food, fuel and medicines, and Turkey has a team of rescue specialists waiting at the border to help find bodies in the rubble.
Some violent incidents have taken place despite the ceasefire.
Gaza civil defence says nine killed when Israeli forces fired at bus
Gaza's civil defence agency said that Israeli forces killed nine members of a single Palestinian family when they fired on a bus yesterday, after the military confirmed it had targeted a vehicle that crossed the so-called "yellow line".
"Civil defence crews were able to recover nine bodies following the Israeli occupation's targeting of a bus carrying displaced persons east of the Zeitun neighbourhood yesterday," Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for the agency, which operates under Hamas authority, said.
Mr Bassal said the victims were members of the Abu Shabaan family and were killed while "trying to check on their home" in the Zeitun neighbourhood.
The Israeli military said a vehicle had been identified crossing the yellow line, the boundary behind which Israeli troops are stationed under the ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
"The troops fired warning shots toward the suspicious vehicle, but the vehicle continued to approach the troops in a way that caused an imminent threat to them," the military said in a statement.
"The troops opened fire to remove the threat, in accordance with the agreement."
The ceasefire between Israeli forces and Hamas is now in its second week, but several incidents have been reported since it began, with the military saying its troops fired at individuals who approached or crossed the yellow line.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have returned to northern Gaza in search of their homes since the ceasefire began, often struggling to find them amid the vast devastation left by more than two years of war.
Several Gazans who spoke to AFP said they were unable to locate their houses - or even familiar landmarks - in neighbourhoods now buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings and debris.
Israel's Netanyahu says he will run for PM in next year's election
Mr Netanyahu said he would run for office in the November 2026 elections and expected to win.
Appearing on a programme on the right-wing Channel 14, Mr Netanyahu was asked whether he intended to seek another term. "Yes," he replied.
When pressed on whether he expected to win, the veteran leader responded: "Yes."
Leader of Likud, Israel's main right-wing party, Mr Netanyahu holds the record for the longest time served as Israel's prime minister - more than 18 years in total, with interruptions, since 1996.
In the last elections, his Likud party won 32 seats in the Knesset, its ultra-Orthodox allies 18, and the Religious Zionism alliance 14, a record showing for the far-right.
His current term began with a controversial judicial overhaul plan that sparked months of mass protests, with tens of thousands of Israelis taking to the streets almost daily.
Since the start of the war triggered by Hamas's unprecedented 7 October 2023 attack from Gaza, Mr Netanyahu has also faced mounting criticism from families of hostages over his handling of the war.
Additional reporting by PA
