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.

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 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 and Hamas are once again struggling to reach a ceasefire that could wind down the 15-month war in Gaza and bring home dozens of Israelis held hostage.

Hamas has named 34 hostages, some of them believed to have died in captivity, who it says it would return to Israel in the first phase of an evolving if still elusive ceasefire in Gaza.

Gaza's civil defence agency said a series of Israeli air strikes killed at least 14 people on Wednesday, in the latest violence to ravage the already devastated Palestinian territory.Five people were killed and several wounded in an air strike on the house of the Barghout family in the Zeitun neighbourhood of Gaza City,