{"id":245835,"date":"2025-10-28T15:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T15:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/245835\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T15:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T15:02:08","slug":"hamas-fakes-unearthing-partial-remains-of-hostage-whose-body-idf-recovered-in-2023-israel-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/245835\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamas fakes unearthing partial remains of hostage whose body IDF recovered in 2023, Israel says"},"content":{"rendered":"

A casket handed over by Hamas<\/a> on Monday night to Israel contained the partial remains of Ofir Tzarfati<\/a>, a hostage whose body was recovered by the military in early December 2023, Israeli officials said.<\/p>\n

In addition to not returning the bodies of any of the 13 dead hostages still held in the Gaza Strip, Hamas staged a fake \u201cdiscovery\u201d of Tzarfati\u2019s remains in eastern Gaza City in front of the Red Cross.<\/p>\n

Israel has said Hamas has access to many of the remaining bodies and is dragging its feet in returning them, which it is required to do under the terms of the US-backed ceasefire agreement.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Hamas brought the remains of Tzarfati out of a building and placed them in a hole it had dug in the ground in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City. It then covered the body in dirt and pretended to uncover it for the first time in front of the Red Cross.<\/p>\n

The entire incident was filmed by a military drone. The full footage<\/a> was published by the IDF later on Tuesday, after Tzarfati\u2019s family was notified by military representatives that additional remains of his body were returned by Hamas.<\/p>\n

Voices from across the political spectrum called on Israel to halt or pause its own commitments under the agreement in response, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to convene an emergency meeting on Tuesday to discuss possible Israeli reactions.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Hamas operatives are seen staging the recovery of the remains of a hostage in Gaza City, October 27, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)<\/p>\n

Tzarfati had been kidnapped from the Nova music festival during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack, where he was celebrating his 27th birthday. He was declared dead the following month, and his body was recovered by the IDF in the Gaza Strip on December 1 and brought back to Israel for burial.<\/p>\n

The IDF drone video showed Hamas operatives bringing a body bag from a building to a hole that was dug in the ground, before covering it in dirt. The operatives were then seen digging up the body bag using an excavator, before dumping it nearby.<\/p>\n

Red Cross representatives were seen arriving as the excavator dumped more dirt on the body bag. The Hamas operatives then uncovered the body bag in front of them, with one seen taking pictures with his phone.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tOfir Tzarfati (Courtesy)<\/p>\n

\u201cContrary to Hamas\u2019 claims of difficulties locating the bodies of the deceased hostages, yesterday Hamas operatives were documented removing body remains from a structure that had been prepared in advance and burying them nearby,\u201d the IDF said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cShortly thereafter, the Hamas terror organization summoned representatives of the Red Cross and staged a false display of discovering a deceased hostage\u2019s body,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

The military said the footage \u201cclearly shows that the Hamas terror organization is attempting to create a false impression of efforts to locate the bodies, while in fact holding deceased hostages whose remains it refuses to release as required by the agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is accompanied by false claims of shortages in engineering equipment, equipment that is clearly unnecessary for the transfer of remains, and therefore these claims do not constitute an obstacle to the return of the remaining deceased hostages,\u201d the IDF added.<\/p>\n

Tzarfati\u2019s family said earlier they had viewed the video, and lamented \u201ca wound that constantly reopens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce again, deception has been inflicted upon our family as we try to heal,\u201d Tzarfati\u2019s family said in a statement. \u201cThis morning we were shown video footage of our beloved son\u2019s remains being removed, buried, and handed over to the Red Cross \u2014 an abhorrent manipulation designed to sabotage the deal and abandon the effort to bring all the hostages home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"
\n\t\tHeavy machinery amid a purported operation to recover the body of a hostage in the al-Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City on October 27, 2025 (Omar AL-QATTAA \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister\u2019s Office said in a statement that \u201cthis is a clear violation of the agreement\u201d by Hamas, as it is obligated to return the bodies of the 13 deceased captives still held in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu was set to hold a security assessment with top defense officials in the afternoon to \u201cdiscuss Israel\u2019s steps in response to the violations,\u201d the PMO added.<\/p>\n

In one potential response, Israel is considering moving the so-called Yellow Line that divides Gaza in two, Hebrew media reported, with the IDF taking control of more territory as a way of pressuring Hamas to hand over the bodies of additional hostages. The US is open to the proposal, according to Channel 12.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tHamas operatives are seen staging the \u2018recovery\u2019 of the remains of a hostage in Gaza City, October 27, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)<\/p>\n

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which has said Israel should pause the US-backed peace deal<\/a> until Hamas returns the bodies of deceased captives, demanded a meeting with Netanyahu in light of Tuesday\u2019s news, accusing Hamas of violating the truce and calling on Israel to \u201cact decisively.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHamas\u2019s repeated violations and the IDF\u2019s documentation prove what we have known and stated clearly and unequivocally: Hamas knows the location of the hostages and continues to act with contempt, deceiving the United States and mediators while dishonoring our loved ones,\u201d the group said in a statement. \u201cThe Israeli government cannot and must not ignore this, and must act decisively against these violations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruby Chen, the father of slain American-Israeli hostage soldier Itay Chen whose body has yet to be returned from Gaza, told the Ynet news outlet on Tuesday, \u201cThis agreement isn\u2019t good, that\u2019s the lesson. Hamas has no incentive to transfer all the slain hostages to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is the government of Israel doing right now?\u201d he demanded. \u201cThey should dedicate their energy and their thought to what we\u2019ll do to change the equation. We shouldn\u2019t lose this window of opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tNational Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir attends a National Security Committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on October 27, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

Far-right ministers urged Netanyahu to destroy Hamas, in a return to the two-year war.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that Hamas continues to play games and does not immediately transfer all the bodies of our fallen is in itself evidence that the terror organization is still standing,\u201d National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir posted on X. \u201cNow we don\u2019t need to \u2018exact a price from Hamas\u2019 for the violations. We need to exact from it its very existence, and destroy it completely, once and for all \u2014 in accordance with the central goal defined for the War of Revival.\u201d<\/p>\n

Writing to Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich demanded an urgent meeting of the security cabinet to discuss \u201cforceful responses\u201d to Hamas\u2019s violations of the first phase of the ceasefire, including continued steps toward the terror group\u2019s destruction.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgainst the backdrop of Hamas\u2019s repeated violations of the ceasefire terms and the first stage of President Trump\u2019s plan, and against the backdrop of the lack of progress in its dismantling and the demilitarization of Gaza, I request that you urgently convene the security cabinet today for a discussion in order to formulate a package of forceful and determined responses, and to ensure our adherence to the central objective of the war: the destruction of Hamas and the removal of the threat emanating from Gaza toward the citizens of Israel,\u201d Smotrich wrote.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tIllustrative: Palestinian security prisoners gesture from inside a bus after being released from Ofer Prison in the West Bank on October 13, 2025, in exchange for hostages held in Gaza since the October 7 attacks. (HAZEM BADER \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

On X, Smotrich suggested that, as a penalty for the ceasefire violations, Israel rearrest \u201call of the terrorists released to [the West Bank] as part of the hostage deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the agreement, Israel released 250 life-sentence prisoners, as well as some 1,700 Gazans detained following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack that launched the war \u2014 some to the West Bank, some to Gaza, and some to other countries.<\/p>\n

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who is considered the most credible rival to Netanyahu in elections due next year, also called for the destruction of Hamas.<\/p>\n

\u201cHamas is a cancer. Hamas must be destroyed,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A casket handed over by Hamas on Monday night to Israel contained the partial remains of Ofir Tzarfati,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-245835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}