DOHA — Gaza talks mediator Qatar said on Tuesday it hoped Israel and Hamas could be brought to a new phase of negotiations for a peace deal in the Palestinian territory following their October ceasefire agreement.

 

"We think that we should be pushing the parties to stage two very, very soon," Qatar foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari said.

 

"That includes, of course, the issues that are complicating the situation, like the fighters in the tunnels behind the Yellow Line, like the incidents that take place every couple of days," he added.

 

The so-called Yellow Line marks the point to which Israeli troops have withdrawn inside the Gaza Strip. Dozens of Hamas fighters remain holed up in tunnels beyond the line, though Israel says it has been targeting and killing them.

 

Qatar, alongside the United States and Egypt secured a long-elusive truce in Gaza, which came into effect on October 10 and has mostly halted two years of fighting between Israel and Hamas.

 

During the first phase of the Gaza peace plan, initially outlined by US President Donald Trump, Hamas and its allies were due to return all 48 hostages they held captive, 20 of whom were still alive.

 

Under the second phase of the deal, which gained UN backing in November, Israel is to withdraw from its positions in the territory, an interim authority is to govern Gaza and an international stabilisation force is to be deployed.

 

Hamas is also supposed to disarm under Trump's 20-point plan, with members who decommission their weapons allowed to leave Gaza. The militant group has repeatedly rejected the proposition.

 

Israeli authorities said on Tuesday they had received the presumed remains of one of the last two deceased hostages in the Gaza Strip, which will be identified at the country's forensic institute.

 

All but the bodies of two hostages -- Israeli Ran Gvili and Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak -- have since been handed over, but Israel has accused the Palestinian militants of dragging their feet on returning remains.

 

Hamas has said the process of retrieving the bodies has been slow because the bodies have been under the vast piles of rubble left by two years of devastating war.

 

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said earlier that Israel had received the "findings" through the Red Cross inside the Gaza Strip.

 

It did not specify whether what was discovered were the remains of either Gvili or Rinthalak, but said authorities were in "continuous contact" with their families.

 

Hamas had not confirmed by Tuesday late afternoon local time that it had handed the remains of a hostage over to Israel as it had done so previously.

 

'Number of bodies found'

 

Fighters took 251 people hostage during Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Israel's assault on Gaza has killed at least 70,112 people, according to figures from the territory's health ministry that the UN considers reliable.

 

The ministry says since the ceasefire came into effect, 356 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire. Israel's military has reported three soldiers killed during the same period.

 

A Hamas official told AFP a team from the group's armed wing and that of Islamic Jihad -- accompanied by the Red Cross -- had been conducting search operations for several days in multiple areas, particularly in Jabalia and Beit Lahia in the north of the territory.

 

"A number of bodies were found under the rubble and are being examined," the official said, adding that search operations were ongoing and there was "no confirmation that any of these bodies found belong to an Israeli prisoner".

 

"The mediators were informed that if the two bodies are found, they will be handed over immediately to the Israeli side through the established mechanism," the official added, without giving further details.