No response returned

Hamas has handed over the remains of another deceased hostage, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The IDF in a social media post early Saturday local time that the "coffin of the deceased hostage" was brought into Israel and was being taken to Israel's National Institute for Forensic Medicine, where the body would be identified.

The Associated Press reported on Saturday morning that the remains had been identified as those of Eliyahu Margalit, 76, citing Israel's Prime Minister's Office. Margalit had been abducted from the horse stables where he worked in . 

In a  social media post late Friday night, the IDF said that the Red Cross was "on its way to the meeting point in the southern Gaza Strip, where a coffin of a deceased hostage will be transferred into its custody." 

Hamas' armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, had said earlier Friday that it was handing over the body.

The announcement comes after Hamas said Wednesday it in Gaza that it had been able to recover, and extensive efforts and special equipment would be required to find the remaining bodies.

The called for Hamas to — 20 living and 28 dead — by Monday, Oct. 13. Since the plan took effect last week, Hamas has been accused of delaying handing over the remains of Israeli hostages still believed to be in the Palestinian territory. 

Hamas has handed over the remains of at least eight confirmed hostages since the peace deal took effect, including Margalit's remains. 

While Hamas returned the by the Monday deadline, the remains of only four deceased Israeli captives were handed over. Hamas transferred an additional four bodies on Tuesday, but . The remains of at least 20 hostages are still unaccounted for. 

A senior U.S. adviser told reporters on a call Wednesday that "nobody is getting left behind," noting they believe there are still many bodies buried under the mountains of rubble across Gaza. Senior U.S. advisers said the level of destruction also makes it difficult to move around in the Palestinian territory. 

"It would have been almost impossible for Hamas to mobilize, even if they knew where all the 28 bodies were, to mobilize and get them home," one adviser said Wednesday.

Strikingly, the adviser said the U.S. is sharing Israeli intelligence with Hamas to assist in finding hostage remains. The adviser also said Turkey has offered to help search for and retrieve remains by sending in expert teams with experience rescuing people from the frequent earthquakes in the country.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said Thursday that to recover the remains of the hostages that have yet to be turned over.

During negotiations that led to the peace deal, Hamas representatives said they did not know the location of all the remains of deceased hostages, according to Israeli media reports. President Trump also said in Egypt on Monday that not all of the bodies of the deceased hostages had been found, adding that unidentified parties were still "working out" how to locate an unspecified number of remains.

The senior U.S. advisers who spoke to reporters on Wednesday urged patience and said they are not at a point where they feel that the agreement has been violated, citing the difficulties in retrieving the remains still in Gaza.

Both the Israeli Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the group that represents the hostage families, and Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz have previously said the entire peace deal should be shelved until all of the hostages' remains are returned by Hamas. 

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Saturday morning that 15 Palestinian bodies had been returned to Gaza. Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees as part of the ceasefire agreement in exchange for the return of the hostages. The released Palestinians include 250 people who are serving life sentences and about 1,700 others who have been detained and held without charges since Hamas' terror attack on Oct. 7, 2023. 

Also, Gaza's Hamas-run civil defense agency said that nine people had been killed in Gaza when Israeli forces fired on a bus in Gaza City's Zeitun neighborhood. Mahmud Bassal, an agency spokesperson, told the AFP the nine were victims of a family who were "trying to check on their home." 

The Israeli military told the AFP the vehicle had crossed the "yellow line," the boundary behind which Israeli troops are stationed under the ceasefire agreement. The military said troops had fired warning shots, but that the vehicle "continued to approach the troops in a way that caused an imminent threat to them."