Israel accused Hamas of a "clear violation" of a recent ceasefire agreement on October 28, 2025, after forensic experts identified partial remains returned by the militant group the previous night as belonging to Ofir Tzarfati, a hostage whose body had already been recovered by the Israeli military nearly two years earlier. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office condemned the handover as deceptive, stating it undermined the deal brokered under U.S. mediation to exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners and facilitate humanitarian pauses in Gaza.

Netanyahu scheduled an urgent meeting with defense leaders to deliberate Israel's response, amid heightened tensions over the ongoing conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since October 2023. Tzarfati, a 27-year-old electrical engineering student at Ariel University, was abducted and killed during Hamas's October 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and saw 252 individuals taken captive. His body was retrieved by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from Gaza on December 1, 2023, during a military operation, with postmortem confirming his death on or shortly after the attack.

The family expressed profound anguish, noting this marks the third time they must exhume and reinter his remains, and accused Hamas of staging a fake burial—evidenced by video footage showing militants digging a shallow grave, placing the body parts inside, and then "retrieving" them in front of Red Cross observers. "This despicable manipulation is designed to torpedo the deal and abandon the return of all hostages," the Tzarfati family said in a statement, calling for decisive action to secure the remaining captives.

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The incident stems from a fragile November 2024 truce, extended into 2025, under which Hamas agreed to release 13 deceased hostages' bodies in phases, alongside living captives, in exchange for over 600 Palestinian detainees and increased aid to Gaza. This latest exchange, facilitated via the Rafah crossing with Egyptian assistance, was meant to advance Phase 2 of the deal, focusing on body recoveries from rubble-strewn sites in Khan Younis and Nuseirat. However, Hamas claimed the remains were among those still held, citing extensive destruction—over 90% of Gaza's buildings damaged—from Israeli operations that have displaced 1.9 million people and killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, per Gaza health authorities. Critics, including former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, decried it as a deliberate sabotage, while hostage families demanded an immediate cabinet session with Netanyahu.

As Egyptian teams deploy heavy machinery to aid excavations, the violation risks derailing negotiations for the 101 remaining hostages (about 35 presumed alive). With U.S. President Donald Trump's administration pressing for full implementation, Israel's response—potentially including escalated strikes or withheld concessions—could unravel the ceasefire, prolonging a war that has drawn global condemnation and humanitarian crises. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged "decisive" measures, emphasising that every delay endangers lives in Gaza's besieged enclaves. In a conflict marked by mutual recriminations, Tzarfati's re-return underscores the human cost, where even the dead become pawns in a protracted struggle for resolution.

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