Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the Knesset, Israel’s unicameral legislature, in Jerusalem (Photo: X/IsraeliPM) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that body parts returned overnight by Hamas were partial remains of a hostage whose body had already been recovered nearly two years ago—an incident he described as a “clear violation” of the US-brokered ceasefire agreement.
Netanyahu said he would convene top security officials for an emergency meeting to decide Israel’s response. Israeli media reported that options on the table include halting humanitarian aid to Gaza, expanding military control over the enclave, or launching targeted airstrikes against Hamas leaders.
According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the remains belong to Ofir Tzarfati, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, assault on Israel that triggered the war. Tzarfati was killed in captivity, and his body was recovered by Israeli troops in November 2023. His family later received additional remains for burial in March 2024.
In a statement, the family said this was the third time they had been asked to reopen and rebury their son’s grave. Calling the return of body parts an “abhorrent manipulation,” they wrote: “We have lived with a wound that constantly reopens, between memory and longing, between bereavement and mission.”
The incident marks the second dispute over hostage remains since the ceasefire began on October 10. In the first week, one of the bodies Hamas handed over was later identified as an unrelated Palestinian.
Hamas has claimed difficulties in locating the bodies amid Gaza’s widespread destruction, while Israel accuses the group of deliberately delaying returns. Egyptian teams with heavy equipment have joined searches in Khan Younis and Nuseirat to locate the 13 remaining hostages’ bodies still in Gaza.
The controversy threatens to derail the fragile truce, which is meant to pave the way for talks on Hamas disarmament, the deployment of an international security force, and future governance of Gaza.
Earlier on Tuesday, Israel’s military said it killed three Palestinian militants during a raid near Jenin in the northern West Bank — part of its intensified operations in the territory since October 2023. The army said the men had participated in “terror activity.” Hamas later identified two of the dead as members of its Qassam Brigades.
Meanwhile, Israel has returned 195 Palestinian bodies to Gaza in exchange for hostages’ remains, though fewer than half have been identified. In Gaza’s Deir al-Balah on Monday, 41 unidentified bodies were buried, while Israel held a funeral for slain hostage Yossi Sharabi, whose remains were handed over earlier this month.
The two-year conflict has killed over 68,500 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry — figures that Israel disputes but that UN agencies consider broadly reliable. The war began with Hamas’s October 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people in Israel and saw 251 taken hostage.
(With Inputs from Associated Press)