Israel says a coffin handed over by Hamas on Monday did not contain the body of another deceased hostage but more of the remains of another person held captive whose body had been previously returned.
Forensic tests showed the remains belonged to Ofir Tzarfati, whose body was recovered by Israeli forces in late 2023, and not to any of the 13 deceased hostages still in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.
It accused Hamas of a “clear violation” of the two-week-old Gaza ceasefire deal and said Netanyahu would discuss “steps in response”.
Israeli media say officials are discussing punitive measures against Hamas for returning only 15 of the 28 deceased hostages.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
The group has said it is committed to the deal brokered by the US, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, but that it needs help to find remains buried under the rubble left by two years of war.
On Monday evening, Hamas’s military wing announced that it would hand over to the Red Cross the body of an Israeli hostage which had been recovered earlier in the day.
A few hours later, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that its troops in Gaza had received a coffin and taken it to the National Institute for Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv for identification procedures. On Tuesday afternoon, the Israeli prime minister’s office said it was found that “remains belonging to fallen hostage Ofir Tzarfati – of blessed memory, who was returned from the Gaza Strip in a military operation about two years ago – were returned”.
Credit: bbc.com
