Hamas Hands Israel a Casket of Lies: Remains Believed to Belong to a Hostage Already Buried. In yet another cynical violation of the ceasefire agreement, Hamas has once again proven that even in death, it weaponizes deception.
Late Monday night, under the cover of a supposed humanitarian gesture, Hamas handed over what it claimed were the remains of an Israeli hostage. Yet forensic experts at Tel Aviv’s Abu Kabir National Institute for Forensic Medicinehave since determined that the remains do not belong to any of the 13 hostages still held in Gaza, but rather to a hostage already returned and buried in Israel weeks ago.
What was meant to be a solemn moment of closure turned into a grotesque act of psychological warfare.
🔴
, Voice From The East (@EasternVoices) October 28, 2025
HAMAS FOOLS ISRAEL AGAIN: RETURNS OLD HOSTAGE REMAINS
The identification process of the remains that Hamas transferred to Israel tonight has been completed, and it is not among the 13 dead hostages that Hamas committed to return.
The remains that were returned last night… https://t.co/4dHVUNRBhT pic.twitter.com/Sl2oXAGijb
A Calculated Mockery
The casket, transferred under the coordination of the IDF and the International Red Cross, arrived shortly after midnight. Families of hostages, still clinging to hope and holding their breath for any sign of resolution, were once again led into an abyss of anguish.
Inside Abu Kabir, forensic specialists completed the grim work of identification, only to conclude that the remains were not new, but fragments belonging to a previously identified victim.
An IDF–Shin Bet joint statement urged the public and media to act with restraint:
“Identification efforts are underway, and families will be informed first. We ask the public to respect their privacy.”
But restraint is not something Hamas practices.
UPDATE: The Red Cross has transferred what’s believed to be the remains of a hostage to Israel. Israeli forensic teams are now working to confirm the identity.
, Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) October 27, 2025
After all, Hamas has a track record of returning bodies that, in the end, don’t belong to any of the captives at all. https://t.co/wBkonOEqwg pic.twitter.com/ZxFGLj8UQQ
The Terrorist Theater of “Good Faith”
Earlier in the day, Hamas’s Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades told Al Jazeera that the remains had been “discovered during excavation” in Gaza City’s Tuffah neighborhood, an area under Hamas control on the so-called Yellow Line, established by the ceasefire agreement.
Their propaganda channels framed the gesture as a “humanitarian handover.” In reality, it was a deliberate attempt to stall for time, an effort to appease Washington’s warnings while deceiving both the Israeli public and the mediators still clinging to illusions of progress.
Sources told Asharq that Hamas had days earlier requested that the IDF withdraw from specific areas outside the Yellow Line so it could “continue searching” for more remains. Yet, no genuine handover schedule was established, and the terror organization’s statements to mediators grew increasingly vague.
JUST IN 🔴
, Open Source Intel (@Osint613) October 28, 2025
PM Netanyahu is set to hold a meeting today to decide Israel’s response to a Hamas, after several options were recently reviewed with U.S. officials.
This comes after Hamas gave Israel the remains of a hostage who had already been returned.
Thirteen hostages still… https://t.co/UqbhusT8jb
Trump’s Ultimatum Ignored
The stunt appears directly connected to the 48-hour ultimatum issued by U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday, demanding Hamas begin returning the bodies of slain hostages, including two American citizens, without delay.
“Hamas is going to have to start returning the bodies of the deceased hostages quickly,” Trump warned.
“Let’s see what they do over the next 48 hours. I’m watching this very closely.”
Instead of compliance, Hamas resorted to theatrics, producing a casket filled with deception rather than the dignity owed to the murdered.
Ceasefire in Name Only
Monday night’s farce underscores what Israeli officials have warned for weeks: Hamas is systematically violating the terms of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire, even as it uses the pretense of cooperation to buy time, rebuild tunnels, and manipulate public perception.
What should have been an act of closure for grieving families has become a symbol of Hamas’s pathological cruelty, a regime that desecrates not only life but also death.
As one senior Israeli security source bluntly put it:
“They sent us a coffin of lies. There’s no moral line they haven’t crossed.”
🚨The assessment in Israel:
, Iris (@streetwize) October 28, 2025
The coffin that Hamas transferred last night did not contain a deceased hostage body that belongs to one of the 13 hostages held in Gaza at present, but rather remains that apparently belong to a deceased hostage that was returned in the past.
- we…
Analysis
Hamas’s gesture is not a misstep, it’s a strategy. The terror group thrives on uncertainty and spectacle. By sending remains already buried, it sends a message: we control the narrative, the timing, and even the suffering.
But Israel, backed by Trump’s administration, now faces a critical decision, how long to tolerate a ceasefire that is increasingly indistinguishable from surrender.
Addendum: The Victim Behind the Deception
The remains handed over by Hamas on Monday night have now been conclusively identified as belonging to Ofir Tzarfati, one of the victims of the October 7 Hamas massacre, whose body was already recovered and laid to rest in December 2023, less than two months after his abduction.
According to military representatives, forensic analysis confirmed that the fragments returned by Hamas were additional remains of Tzarfati’s body, not those of a new hostage. The IDF personally notified his family, who once again endured the trauma of reliving their son’s murder and burial.
The body that Hamas handed over yesterday: The remains of the body of the late Ofir Tzarfati , who was rescued from captivity two years ago pic.twitter.com/2pcXYiLqF7
— Iris (@streetwize) October 28, 2025
In an official statement, the Prime Minister’s Office condemned Hamas’s action as “a clear violation of the agreement”, stressing that the terror group is obligated to return the bodies of the 13 slain captives still held in Gaza, not remains already identified and buried.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called an urgent security assessment with senior defense and intelligence officials this afternoon to “discuss Israel’s steps in response to the violations,” according to the PMO.
What was intended as a humanitarian act has thus been exposed as yet another layer of Hamas’s cynical deception, an exploitation of grief, meant to prolong psychological warfare against the families of Israel’s abducted and murdered citizens.
