Copyright maltatoday
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed the military to launch what his office described as “powerful” strikes on Gaza, accusing Hamas of violating the fragile two-week-old ceasefire by returning the wrong remains during a handover on Monday. The Israeli government said a coffin delivered by Hamas, purportedly containing the body of a deceased hostage, was instead found to hold additional remains of another captive, Ofir Tzarfati, whose body had already been recovered nearly two years ago. “This constitutes a clear violation of the agreement by the Hamas terrorist organisation,” Netanyahu’s office said. “The prime minister will hold a security discussion with the heads of the security establishment to discuss Israel’s steps in response.” Forensic tests conducted at Israel’s National Institute for Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv confirmed the remains were Tzarfati’s, not those of any of the 13 deceased hostages still believed to be in Gaza. Tzarfati, a 27-year-old Israeli-French national, was killed after being abducted from the Nova music festival during Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel, which triggered the ongoing Gaza war. His body was recovered in late 2023, with additional remains returned for burial months later. His family condemned Monday’s handover as a “cruel manipulation.” “We went to sleep last night with hope that another family would find closure,” they said in a statement. “Instead, we were deceived once again.” The Israeli military released drone footage it said showed Hamas operatives “removing body remains from a structure prepared in advance” before burying them and staging a handover to the Red Cross. Hamas denied Israel’s accusations, calling them “baseless” and accusing Israel of obstructing efforts to recover bodies in Gaza by blocking heavy machinery and humanitarian access. “[Israel] is seeking to fabricate false pretexts in preparation for taking new aggressive steps against our people,” the group said. “We call on mediators to allow relevant bodies to carry out their humanitarian tasks away from political and aggressive calculations.” The group’s armed wing later announced plans to hand over another body to the Red Cross on Tuesday evening, maintaining that it was adhering to the terms of the US-, Egypt-, Qatar-, and Turkey-brokered ceasefire deal. Under the current ceasefire deal, Hamas agreed to release all living hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and the return of bodies from both sides. All 20 living Israeli hostages were released earlier this month, while Israel has so far handed over the bodies of 195 Palestinians. According to Israeli estimates, 13 hostages remain dead in Gaza. Hamas negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said on Saturday the group was struggling to locate all the bodies due to the “altered terrain” caused by two years of war. “Some of those who buried the bodies have been martyred or no longer remember where they buried them,” he said. Since the war began, more than 68,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, while around 1,200 Israelis were killed during the 7 October attacks.
