Israel said on Saturday that the remains of a hostage returned from Gaza the previous night belong to an Israeli man who died while fighting Hamas in the militants' Oct. 7, 2023 attack that started the war.

An Israeli hostage who was released in October has told an Israeli television channel he was subjected to sexual violence during his two-year captivity in Gaza by Palestinian militants -- the first male hostage to publicly make such an accusation.

Elad Or, the remains of whose brother Dror are still in Gaza, calls for the swift completion of the truce-hostage deal that US President Donald Trump brokered between Israel and Hamas.

The set of remains handed over to Israel on Tuesday were those of Itay Chen, the final remaining American Israeli hostage, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

Described as a “great friend who cared for his soldiers and whose love will live on forever,” Hamami was killed on the morning of October 7 with fellow soldiers Tomer Ahimas and Kiril Brodsky. Colonel Asaf Hamami,

The casket containing the apparent remains of a dead hostage has been brought out of the Gaza Strip by troops, the military says. The body is now escorted by the police to the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv for identification, a process which officials have said may take up to two days.

Gaza health officials said Saturday that over 69,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war so far, as Israel and Hamas completed the latest exchange of bodies under the terms of the tenuous ceasefire agreement.