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».
«This constitutes a clear violation of the agreement by the Hamas terrorist organisation,» it added. «Prime Minister Netanyahu will hold a security discussion with the heads of the security establishment to discuss Israel’s steps in response to the violations.»
It is understood that different possible responses are being discussed with US mediators.
One being considered is said to be expanding the area of Gaza under IDF control, which is demarcated by the so-called «Yellow Line».
The latest handover came after the Israeli government confirmed it had allowed a member of Hamas into an IDF-controlled territory to help Red Cross and Egyptian personnel search for the remaining dead hostages.
«The Red Cross, the Egyptian technical team, and a Hamas person have been permitted to enter beyond the IDF’s Yellow Line position in Gaza under close IDF supervision,» Israeli government spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian told a briefing on Monday.
She also said the Egyptians would bring in more equipment, including «tractor-type vehicles».
On Sunday, Bedrosian had said they were using two to three excavators and a similar number of lorries to carry out searches.
All 20 living Israeli hostages were released soon after the ceasefire took effect on 10 October in exchange for 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,718 detainees from Gaza.
Israel has also handed over the bodies of 195 Palestinians in exchange for the bodies of the 13 Israeli hostages previously returned by Hamas, along with those of two foreign hostages – one of them Thai and the other Nepalese.
Eleven of the dead hostages still in Gaza are Israelis, one is Tanzanian, and one is Thai.
«Hamas knows where they are located and there is no other option but for them to be released back home,» Bedrosian said.
But Qatar-based Al Jazeera quoted Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem as saying the claim that it knew all the locations were «false».
Earlier on Monday, a group representing Israeli hostages’ families demanded that immediate action be taken to ensure Hamas handed over all the bodies.
«The families urge the government of Israel, the United States administration, and the mediators not to advance to the next phase of the agreement until Hamas fulfils all of its obligations,» the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.
It came after Israeli media cited an Israeli security official as saying that the US wanted to move to the second phase of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan even if not all the hostages were returned.
On Saturday, Hamas’s chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said the group was facing «challenges» because Israeli forces had «altered the terrain of Gaza».
«Moreover, some of those who buried the bodies have been martyred or no longer remember where they buried them,» he added.
All but one of the dead hostages still in Gaza were among the 251 people abducted during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, during which about 1,200 other people were killed.
Israel responded by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 68,500 people have been killed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
