TEL AVIV,(National times)- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that the remains of a hostage returned by Hamas overnight are body parts of another hostage who was recovered in Gaza by Israeli troops almost two years ago \u2014 an announcement that threatened to rattle the tenuous, U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement. Under the truce, Hamas is expected to return all Israeli hostage remains as soon as possible. Netanyahu called the return of body parts a \u201cclear violation\u201d of the ceasefire agreement by the militant group. He said he will convene top security officials for an emergency discussion on Tuesday afternoon to weigh Israel\u2019s response. Israeli media said his likely options include halting the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza, expanding Israeli control of Gaza or carrying out airstrikes targeting Hamas leaders. There are still 13 bodies of hostages in Gaza, and the slow recovery of those remains is posing a challenge to implementing the next stages of the ceasefire. Hamas has said it is struggling to locate the bodies amid the vast destruction in Gaza, while Israel has accused the militant group of purposely delaying their return. During the two years of the Israel-Hamas war in the coastal territory, the Israeli military recovered the bodies of some 51 hostages. The remains returned overnight have been identified as belonging to Ofir Tzarfati, Netanyahu\u2019s office said. Tzarfati was kidnapped from the Nova music festival in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel that started the war. Almost 400 people were killed at the festival alone and dozens were abducted. In all, the militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages that day. Tzarfati was killed in captivity and his body was retrieved by Israeli troops in November 2023. In March 2024, his family received additional remains for burial . Tzarfati\u2019s family said in a statement that this is the third time \u201cwe have been forced to open Ofir\u2019s grave and rebury our son.\u201d \u201cSince then, we have lived with a wound that constantly reopens, between memory and longing, between bereavement and mission,\u201d it added and described the return of body parts as an \u201cabhorrent manipulation.\u201d Earlier Tuesday, Israeli authorities said they had killed three Palestinian militants early during an operation in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, the latest action in Israel\u2019s stepped-up military activity in the territory since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack. Israeli police said the three men were shot as they came out of a cave near Jenin, a town in the northern West Bank known as a militant stronghold. The Israeli military said in a statement that the militants \u201ctook part in terror activity in Jenin,\u201d but gave no further details. Two militants where shot and killed in the initial volley of gunfire. The third, who was wounded, was killed shortly after, according to the Israeli military. An earlier statement said the Israeli military carried out an airstrike shortly afterward to destroy the cave. The army confirmed an airstrike in the area but gave no further details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TEL AVIV,(National times)- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that the remains of a hostage returned by Hamas overnight are body parts of another hostage who was recovered in Gaza by Israeli troops almost two years ago \u2014 an announcement that threatened to rattle the tenuous, U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement. Under the truce, Hamas is expected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n