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

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.

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.

Israel said Monday that Hamas had not yet provided the status of 34 hostages the group declared it was ready to release in the first phase of a potential exchange deal.Late on Sunday, a senior Hamas official told AFP the group had "agreed to release 34 Israeli prisoners from a list presented by Israel as part of the first phase of a prisoner exchange deal".

Gaza Israel and Hamas are inching closer to a deal to pause their 15-month war in Gaza and enact a hostages-for-prisoners swap, sources with direct knowledge of the negotiations told The National on Wednesday.

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.

Israel believes a third of the remaining hostages are dead, while a number have been previously freed through negotiated deals. However, Yosef and Hamzah Al Zaydani were believed to still be alive and their bodies’ return could ramp up the pressure on Israel to move ahead on a deal.

Israeli military strikes across Gaza killed at least 22 people on Wednesday, Palestinian medics said, as the U.S. stepped up efforts to overcome sticking points between Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire to end the war.