The body parts in Monday's coffin come from already repatriated Ofir Tzarfati, Israel confirms on Tuesday. He was kidnapped from the music festival Nova during the October 7 attack in 2023 and was brought home dead by Israeli forces later that year, according to Israeli media.
As a result, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for an emergency security meeting to discuss Israel's response to what is described as "a clear violation of the ceasefire" by Hamas.
The meeting is held, according to The Times of Israel's sources, on Tuesday afternoon.
Israel also accuses Hamas of having staged the exhumation of Tzarfati's body. The military has released a video that allegedly shows Hamas members retrieving a body bag from a building, laying it down in a hole in the ground, and covering the bag with earth. Then they dig it up with an excavator in front of Red Cross employees who have just arrived at the scene, according to Israeli media.
An anonymous government representative tells The Times of Israel that Israel has "had enough of Hamas' lies".
We have waited patiently because we understood that it takes time to find, dig, pull out, and return. (...) But now they are crossing the line.
According to the ceasefire agreement, the terrorist-stamped Hamas is to return a total of 28 bodies of hostages. 13 of them are still left in Gaza.
On Tuesday afternoon, Hamas claims that a body will be handed over to Israel during the evening, at 7 pm Swedish time.
