For two years, Ruby Chen has been waiting for his son Itay to come home.
The family thought that moment was finally upon them when Israel and Hamas agreed to the Gaza ceasefire deal.
But in the fortnight since the final 20 living hostages and some of the dead were freed, there has been nothing but more despair.
"Each day we wait for that phone call to come out to tell us that indeed more hostages are coming [and] hopefully one of them is our son," he told the ABC.
"Two weeks ago there was an agreement signed to bring out 48 hostages. At the moment, only 35 have come out.
"We have the belief that our son will be reunited with us soon."
Itay Chen, a dual Israeli-American citizen, was 19 years old and on duty in a tank near the Gaza border on October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched its deadly surprise attack on Israel.
His father was eager to make one thing clear from the start: The words used to refer to his son mattered greatly.
Mr Chen believed it diminished Itay's dignity to refer to his "body" or his "remains", wanting his memory as a hostage and fallen soldier to be preserved.
Hamas has repeatedly said it will be difficult to recover all of the hostages, given Israel is still in control of more than half of Gaza, and most of the buildings in the strip have been reduced to rubble.
"I do not put much stock into what Hamas says in general," Mr Chen said.
"Let's remember the fact that Hamas was the one that abducted and kidnapped and put them in different places … it's not a memory loss that they have."
While praising US President Donald Trump for securing the ceasefire and hostage exchange deal, and "convincing" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept it, Mr Chen argued Hamas had been allowed to obstruct the process.
"The language of the agreement spoke about 'best efforts', which we flagged in advance, knowing that this was not a good motivation by using that language, but that was what it came down to, and that is what was agreed upon," he said.
"And now we're living that hell of needing to wait, and waiting for Hamas to make its best efforts to bring the other remaining hostages out."
In recent days, Mr Chen has attended the funerals of other dead hostages who have been returned — a particular emotional challenge, given he has yet to have the opportunity to lay his son to rest.
"It takes a lot of energy, but they are family to me as well," he said.
"We try to do what we can to support them.
"I do my best. Of course, those that I did not go to, hopefully they will forgive me for not showing up.
"But we feel that obligation to each and every one of those that are able to be reunited with their loved one."
One more hostage to be released
Hamas handed over a coffin containing one more hostage to the Red Cross, and then to Israeli authorities, on Monday night, local time.
Israeli authorities will now begin the process of identification at the National Forensics Center in Tel Aviv.
"All of the hostages' families have been updated accordingly," Prime Minister Mr Netanyahu's office said in a statement.
Hamas's military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, said the body had been "extracted" on Monday and would be handed over at 9pm, local time.
The body would be handed to the Red Cross, then transferred to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to be taken for forensic identification.
Saudi network Al-Sharq reported late on Monday that Hamas had told mediators it had started to recover between seven and nine hostages — something reportedly disputed in the Israeli press by Mr Netanyahu's office.
The Times of Israel has reported that Israeli forces have allowed one Hamas official inside the so-called Yellow Line, the area under Israeli control, to help with the retrieval efforts.
"He's coming there, he's saying dig here," an Israeli official told the newspaper.
Other media reports suggested there had been a refusal by Israeli defence officials to allow Hamas representatives to cross the yellow line and work alongside recovery teams.
Israeli authorities have allowed heavy machinery from Egypt into Gaza to join Red Cross efforts to uncover the hostages.
Israel will not accept Turkish forces in Gaza, says foreign minister
The delay in returning the remaining Israeli hostages appeared to be stalling some of the discussions around the next phase of the ceasefire in Gaza — although the complexity of the issues at hand was also a likely factor.
One of the elements of Mr Trump's plan for Gaza, the make-up of the so-called International Stabilisation Force (ISF), remains uncertain.
The ISF's goal is to help ensure the ceasefire in Gaza holds and ensure there is relative peace once Hamas lays down its weapons and cedes control of the strip to a technocratic governing body.
Despite the role Türkiye played in securing the peace deal, alongside the US and long-time mediators Egypt and Qatar, the Israeli foreign minister insisted they could not be part of the force.
Speaking in the Hungarian capital Budapest, Gideon Sa'ar said countries that contributed personnel to the ISF should "be at least fair to Israel".
"They shouldn't be so supportive, maybe, but they shouldn't be hostile to Israel," he said.
"Unfortunately, and mainly during the last two years, but even before that, Türkiye, led by [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, led a hostile approach against Israel, including not only hostile statements but also diplomatic and economic measures against Israel.
"So, it is not reasonable for us to let their armed forces enter to Gaza Strip, and we will not agree to that, and we said it to our American friends."
The comments echoed sentiments from the Israeli prime minister on Sunday, when he argued Israel would "determine which forces are unacceptable to us".
Jordan's King Abdullah said there needed to be clarity around the role of any international forces inside Gaza.
"What is the mandate of security forces inside of Gaza? And we hope that it is peacekeeping because if it's peace enforcing, nobody will want to touch that," he told the BBC.
"Peacekeeping is that you're sitting there supporting the local police force, the Palestinians, which Jordan and Egypt are willing to train in large numbers, but that takes time.
"If we're running around Gaza on patrol with weapons, that's not a situation that any country would like to get involved in."
More than half of Jordan's population is of Palestinian descent, fuelling deep concern about the war and efforts to maintain peace in Gaza amongst the community.
That is in part why the king said his country would play a role in training Palestinian security forces, but not dispatch its own troops to the strip.
Hostage release delay leading to aid restrictions, Hamas says
In an interview with Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera over the weekend, Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya spoke of the importance of international forces entering the war-ravaged territory.
"With the presence of UN forces and an authority administering Gaza, the strip will be safe and secure, and there will be no exchange of war or gunfire as long as the occupation adheres to it," he said.
Al-Hayya also accused Israel of using the delays in retrieving hostages as an excuse to hold up its side of the ceasefire deal, particularly the delivery of aid.
"The occupation's commitment to the agreement requires it to allow all goods into the Gaza Strip. According to the agreement, no less than 600 trucks must enter daily," he said.
"Gaza needs 6,000 daily, not 600.
"Today, the occupation is using the bodies as an excuse to obstruct aid and reopen the crossing, all of which violates the agreement."
He said he had raised concerns about aid during an earlier meeting with the White House's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and Mr Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled last week that Israel must allow aid groups unimpeded access to Gaza.
The non-binding advisory opinion also found Israel's attempts to stop the UN's lead aid agency, UNRWA, from reaching Palestinians were illegal.
It unanimously found that Israel must ensure Palestinians were adequately supplied with the essentials of daily life, and that Gazans had been lacking those things during the war.
Israel has rejected the decision as an "attempt to impose political measures" and said the agency is "infested with terror activities".
