Israel and Hamas clash over hostage remains

Israeli and Hamas officials traded accusations as search teams in Gaza worked to recover remains believed to be of Israeli hostages taken during the October 7, 2023 attack. Hamas fighters were filmed entering tunnels and excavating in areas including Khan Younis and Nuseirat, using heavy machinery—some supplied from Egypt—to locate bodies thought to be concealed in the militant group’s tunnel network. A video showed masked militants carrying a recovered body on a stretcher to an ambulance amid onlookers.

Tensions rose after Israel said human remains handed over by Hamas did not belong to any of the 13 still-missing hostages but to an Israeli, Ofir Tzarfati, whose body Israeli forces said had already been recovered earlier in the war. The Israeli military released footage it said showed Hamas personnel planting a white bag at an excavation site and staging the handover to create a false impression of progress. Israel’s spokesperson accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire by delivering remains that were not those sought and said the prime minister would meet defense chiefs to decide on next steps.

Hamas denied the allegation and said it was complying with the ceasefire while struggling to retrieve bodies because of extensive destruction and a lack of appropriate equipment. The movement’s armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said it postponed a planned handover of a recovered body, blaming what it described as Israeli violations of the ceasefire and warning that any escalation would impede recovery efforts. Hamas also stated that many remains can be accessed but that locating and identifying them takes time.

Under the ceasefire terms reached earlier, all living hostages were released in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and wartime detainees, and Hamas agreed to hand over the remains of dead hostages still held in Gaza. Israel maintains the group should be able to retrieve most bodies promptly. Israeli leaders, however, have threatened forceful strikes in Gaza in response to what they characterize as breaches of the truce; an Israeli military official cited an attack on Israeli forces in an area under Israeli control as one such violation.

Investigators and forensic teams faced difficult conditions amid rubble and damaged infrastructure, and both sides framed the recovery operations within broader political and security disputes.