Israel received the body of a hostage held by Hamas in Gaza on Monday night, the prime minister's office said in a statement. Hamas handed over the coffin to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Gaza, which then transferred it to the Israeli army and the Shin Bet security agency within the enclave. The office said the coffin was taken to the National Forensic Medicine Center in Tel Aviv. In return, Israel released 2,000 Palestinian detainees. Israel estimates that the bodies of around 28 hostages remain in Gaza. Some of them were killed before being taken and others died in captivity.
Israel reported on Tuesday that the remains handed over by Hamas on Monday night were, in fact, parts of the body of a hostage whose body had already been recovered by its army about two years ago. In a statement, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel considers the handover a "clear violation" of the ceasefire agreement with Hamas, and added that a security meeting will be held later on Tuesday with senior defense officials to discuss the Israeli response.
The remains were transferred by Hamas through the Red Cross in Gaza during the night and subsequently taken to Tel Aviv for forensic identification. The Netanyahu office indicated that, following the identification process, "it was determined that the remains returned last night belong to the fallen hostage Ofir Tzarfati." Tzarfati, 27, was kidnapped at the Nova music festival, in southern Israel, during the assault led by Hamas on October 7, 2023. Israel recovered his body in a military operation in December 2023.
"Once the identification process is completed, an official notification will be sent to the family," that communication had added. This is the most recent exchange of hostages and bodies since the ceasefire, in the framework of which Hamas had previously handed over 15 bodies and released 20 living Israeli hostages.
