Israel's defense minister said Wednesday that troops have recovered the bodies of one hostage from Gaza and is verifying another possible body.

JERUSALEM — Israeli soldiers recovered the body of a 53-year-old hostage in an underground tunnel in southern Gaza, the military said Wednesday, and the army was determining whether another set of remains belongs to the man’s son.

Facing international condemnation and pressure to free the chief of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Israel released a brief interrogation video backing up its claim that militants used the hospital as a base.

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

Palestinian militant group Hamas has approved a list of 34 hostages presented by Israel to be exchanged in a possible ceasefire deal, a group official told Reuters on Sunday.

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 still in captivity.

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.

Israel’s military said the body of Yosef Al Zaydani was recovered in an underground tunnel in Gaza and that it was examining whether a second body was that of another hostage.