The Red Cross says it has received the remains of a hostage in Gaza that Hamas claims is the body of an Israeli soldier who was killed in 2014.

Hamas said it found the body of the soldier, Hadar Goldin, who has been held in Gaza for the past 11 years.

His remains are the only ones currently held in Gaza since before the latest, two-year war between Israel and Hamas.

The Palestinian militant group said his remains were found in a tunnel in the enclave’s southernmost city of Rafah on Saturday. 

Mr Goldin was killed on August 1, 2014, two hours after a ceasefire took effect ending that year’s war between Israel and Hamas.

The remains will be transferred to Israel and to the national forensic institute for identification. If the body is identified as a hostage, there will be four bodies of hostages remaining in Gaza.

A vehicle with the Red Cross logo driving down a dusty road.

The Red Cross says Hamas handed over the remains on Sunday, local time. (AP: Jehad Alshrafi)

Mr Goldin’s return would be a significant development in the US-brokered truce and close a painful, 11-year saga for his family. 

At the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he expected Hamas to release Mr Goldin’s body on Sunday.

Holding the body for 11 years has caused “great agony of his family, which will now be able to give him a Jewish burial,” Mr Netanyahu said. 

Mr Goldin’s family spearheaded a campaign, along with the family of another soldier whose body was taken in 2014, to bring their sons home for burial. 

Israel recovered the remains of the second soldier earlier this year.

Mr Netanyahu said the country would continue trying to bring home the bodies of Israelis still being held across enemy lines, such as Eli Cohen, an Israeli spy hung in Damascus in 1965.

Israeli media, citing anonymous officials, have reported that Hamas was delaying the release of Mr Goldin’s body in hopes of negotiating safe passage for more than 100 militants surrounded by Israeli forces and trapped in the enclave’s southernmost city of Rafah.

Gila Gamliel, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology and a member of Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party, told Army radio on Sunday that Israel is not negotiating for a deal within a deal.

“There are agreements whose implementation is guaranteed by the mediators, and we shouldn’t allow anyone to come know and play [games] and to reopen the agreement,” she said.

Hamas made no comment on a possible exchange for its fighters stuck in the so-called yellow zone, which is controlled by Israeli forces, though they acknowledged that there are clashes taking place there.

AP