The recovery two bodies comes amid renewed efforts by mediators Qatar, the U.S. and Egypt to reach a deal to halt fighting in Gaza and free the remaining Israeli hostages.

The Israeli military said Friday it had identified the body of a hostage recovered from a tunnel in southern Gaza as the son of Yosef Al-Ziyadnah, a hostage whose body was recovered earlier this week.

The 22-year-old son of a man recently found dead in the Gaza Strip, who had been kidnapped from Israel, is also no longer alive. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Friday that it had informed the family after completing an investigation.

The Israeli military confirmed Friday morning that Hamas hostage Hamza Alzayadni was killed in Gaza, days after it had announced his father's body had been retrieved along with unidentified remains from a tunnel in Gaza.

Yousef Al-Ziyadnah, 53, who was kidnapped during the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, was found dead in a tunnel in the Rafah area, a statement from the Israel Defense Forces said. The IDF said he had been “killed in captivity” and confirmed that the dead bodies of at least two Hamas operatives were found nearby.

The hostage, Youssef Ziyadne, an Arab Bedouin, was seized along with three grown children on Oct. 7, 2023. Two of them were released, but there is “serious concern” about the fate of the third.

The body of Youssef Ziyadne, and possibly that of his son, was found after a "complex and difficult operation," an official said.

The body of a Hamas hostage was recovered by Israeli forces this week from an underground tunnel in southern Gaza, according to the Israel Defense Force.

Israeli forces have recovered the body of a 53-year-old hostage in a Gaza tunnel as ceasefire talks with Hamas continue. The fate of his son, also a hostage, remains unclear.