Families of hostages and their supporters have expressed dismay that so few of the dead hostages were being released by Hamas.

Ruby Chen, whose Israeli-American son, Sgt. Itay Chen, was kidnapped and taken to Gaza before later being pronounced dead, said Hamas "have exact notes who and where those hostages are, and they decided that they would not provide any indication from their side who are the hostages that they are retrieving".

The Israeli military said on Wednesday that one of the bodies handed over by Hamas the previous day as part of the ceasefire deal is not that of a hostage who was held in Gaza.

Four bodies were handed over by Hamas on Tuesday to ease pressure on the ceasefire, following an earlier four on Monday — hours after the last 20 living hostages were released.

In all, Israel has been awaiting the return of the bodies of 28 deceased hostages.

"I think that the only thing you can predict about the Middle East is that it is unpredictable, meaning that just a small incident that could happen, a miscalculation, and this whole chapter of hostages coming out could be put on hold", he said.

"It's very difficult, you can imagine. I think as a US citizen, you know, I had expectations that, at least in this segment, the last remaining US hostages would come out. And maybe the call is to the United States President,” he added.

“President Trump maybe needs to make a phone call to the Qatari Emir and demand his citizens come out now and not wait for whenever they might come out”.

Hamas and the Red Cross have said that recovering the remains of dead hostages was a challenge because of Gaza’s vast destruction, and Hamas told mediators of the truce that some are in areas controlled by Israeli troops.