The “military” wing of Hamas said on Saturday it will return two bodies of hostages in Gaza to Israel at 10 p.m., Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported.
The terrorist group did not identify the bodies.
Earlier on Saturday, the family of Eliyahu “Churchill” Margalit, 75, said that the body Hamas handed over to Israel the previous night was identified as that of Margalit.
He was murdered in Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, 2023, during the Hamas-led invasion of the northwestern Negev.
Following his return, 18 bodies of hostages remain in the Gaza Strip, including the remains of Lt. Hadar Goldin, held in the Strip since 2014.
Nir Oz issued a statement saying that Margalit was married to Daphna, father to Noa, Dani and Nili, and grandfather to three.
The Prime Minister’s Office said that the government shared the deep sorrow of the Margalit family and “of all the families of the murdered hostages.”
On Friday, Channel 12 reported that Hamas claimed it had retrieved the all the bodies it could reach. An Israeli government source, however, was cited as saying that the terrorist organization could recover an additional “double-digit” number of hostages’ remains.
An international force composed of American, Turkish, Egyptian and Qatari personnel was slated to enter the Strip to begin locating the whereabouts of the remaining bodies on the basis of Israeli intelligence, broadcaster Channel 13 reported on Thursday.
The ceasefire came into effect on Oct. 10, potentially ending the war two years and four days after it began.
