Jerusalem condemns Hamas for returning the body parts of Ofir Tzarfati — an Israeli civilian murdered on October 7 — whose remains had already been recovered, buried, and even supplemented months earlier, calling it a cruel and cynical manipulation.

Israel’s government said on Tuesday that Hamas had crossed a moral red line by sending back remains belonging to a hostage whose body had already been recovered and interred nearly two years ago. The fragments, handed over overnight as part of the ongoing truce framework, were identified by Israeli forensic experts as belonging to Ofir Tzarfati, a 27-year-old civilian abducted from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, tests conducted at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute confirmed that the remains were duplicates of what had already been returned. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the act “a clear violation of the cease-fire agreement and a desecration of the dead.” He said Israel expected Hamas to provide the full accounting of all hostages, both living and deceased, “honestly and without deceit.”

“This is not a mistake,” an Israeli security official told reporters. “Hamas knew exactly what it was doing. They wanted to inflate the numbers and appear to be complying with the deal, when in fact they were recycling remains already returned.”

For the Tzarfati family, the revelation was unbearable. They had buried their son’s body in November 2023 and again in March 2024 after additional fragments were received. Now, they face the prospect of reopening his grave for a third time. “It is a nightmare that never ends,” the family said in a statement quoted by several Hebrew-language outlets. “This is an abhorrent manipulation of our grief.”

Israeli leaders across the political spectrum expressed outrage. Defense Minister Israel Katz called Hamas’s action “a grotesque cruelty that shows the true face of this organization.” Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said the move “destroys what little trust remained in the process,” and urged international mediators — including Egypt, Qatar, and the United States — to “recognize that Hamas continues to abuse humanitarian arrangements for political theater.”

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said forensic specialists had quickly identified inconsistencies between the newly transferred material and existing samples from Ofir Tzarfati’s previous autopsies. “Within hours it became evident that these were not newly recovered remains,” a senior officer said. “It was the same individual, the same genetic match.”

The discovery has reinforced the belief within Israel’s security establishment that Hamas is deliberately slowing and distorting the hostage-return process to gain leverage in negotiations. As of late October, Israel believes that around 13 hostages remain deceased in Gaza, their bodies withheld by Hamas or buried under rubble. Officials say the organization possesses far more detailed knowledge of their whereabouts than it admits.

One official involved in the talks described Hamas’s conduct as “a grotesque accounting game, turning humanitarian obligations into psychological warfare.” The sentiment is echoed in Jerusalem’s broader assessment that Hamas is trying to stretch each stage of the cease-fire agreement to extract new concessions, while simultaneously presenting itself to mediators as cooperative.

The episode follows another embarrassing incident earlier this year, when Hamas returned what it claimed was the body of a fallen Israeli soldier — only for DNA tests to reveal it was a Palestinian man dressed in an IDF uniform. That blunder led Netanyahu to warn that “no return will be recognized until verified beyond doubt by Israeli experts.”

Now, with the Tzarfati case, Israel’s confidence in Hamas’s credibility has sunk even lower. Officials said the return of duplicate remains was not merely a technical error but a political act meant to exploit world opinion and delay compliance. “If they can make headlines by pretending to cooperate, they buy time and international sympathy,” one senior source told Channel 12 News. “It’s a tactic as old as their terror.”

Israeli public reaction was swift. Commentators on both left- and right-leaning outlets described the act as an insult to the victims’ families and to Israel’s national dignity. Yedioth Ahronoth columnist Nahum Barnea wrote that “the Tzarfati case encapsulates the abyss between civilization and barbarism,” while Israel Hayom noted that “Hamas has weaponized compassion.”

The government convened an emergency session to discuss next steps. Among the measures under consideration are tightening restrictions on humanitarian aid entering Gaza, freezing the next prisoner-release phase, and re-evaluating Israel’s participation in indirect negotiations through Qatar and Egypt. The Foreign Ministry has already lodged a formal protest with the International Committee of the Red Cross, which facilitates the transfers.

Despite public fury, Netanyahu signaled that Israel would maintain “strategic restraint.” His aides said he intends to avoid giving Hamas an excuse to collapse the truce altogether. “We will respond firmly, but in a way that protects Israel’s overall interests,” a senior adviser said. “Our commitment is to bring home every hostage — truthfully, fully, and with respect to their memory.”

Within the IDF, the incident has deepened the resolve to continue intelligence-driven operations in Gaza aimed at locating the remaining hostages and dismantling Hamas infrastructure. Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir told commanders that “the manipulation of remains only strengthens our determination to recover every Israeli — dead or alive — and to ensure Hamas never again has this power over our people.”

For many Israelis, the moral outrage is compounded by the sense of déjà vu. The return of Ofir Tzarfati’s remains for a third time has forced the nation to relive the trauma of October 7 yet again. As one commentator on Channel 13 put it, “Every time Hamas reopens a grave, it reopens the wound of the country.”

The Tzarfati family’s ordeal now stands as a symbol of the inhuman cynicism Israel faces in its dealings with Hamas — and of the country’s determination not to be broken by it.