Israel’s defense minister said Wednesday that troops have recovered the bodies of two additional hostages from Gaza.

Israel says Hamas has not provided any information about the status of those 34 hostages, dampening any notion that the endorsement is a step toward a deal to stop the war.

The Israeli military said that it had retrieved the body of a hostage who had been held in the Gaza Strip, as the Biden administration struggles to secure a cease-fire deal that would bring home dozens of hostages.

Israel said Monday that Hamas had yet to clarify whether 34 hostages it said it was ready to free were dead or alive, throwing doubt on the group's assertion that it needed time to ascertain their fate.

Israel presented a new proposal through mediators in Doha, demanding the release of all Israeli hostages in exchange for an agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners, a Hamas official told EFE on Wednesday.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday that its troops had recovered the body of a hostage in Gaza and brought it back to Israel following a "complex and difficult operation".Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said in an online briefing that troops carried out what he described as a "complex and difficult special operation" to retrieve the body.

The deal would secure release of a third of the approximately 100 hostages who remain in Gaza, including two dual U.S.-Israeli nationals. In return, Israel would release some Palestinian prisoners.