The body that Hamas handed over to Israel on Monday night has been conclusively identified as belonging to Ofir Tzarfati, Hy”d—a victim who was already recovered and buried nearly two years ago. The National Center of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv confirmed the finding Tuesday morning, determining that the remains were not those of any of the 13 deceased hostages Hamas had been obligated to return under the agreement. The Tzarfati family has been informed.
Tzarfati was abducted from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, during Hamas’s brutal onslaught and was murdered soon after. His body was retrieved at the end of November 2023 and buried in Israel. In March 2024, additional remains were recovered and reinterred, and several months later, Hamas published a photograph of his body. The latest so-called “return” marks the third time the family has been forced to confront their son’s grave.
“We went to sleep last night with anticipation and hope that another family would close an agonizing two-year circle and bring their loved one home for burial. But once again, deception has been inflicted upon our family as we try to heal. This morning we were shown video footage of our beloved son’s remains being removed, buried, and handed over to the Red Cross – an abhorrent manipulation designed to sabotage the deal and abandon the effort to bring all the hostages home,” the family said in a painful statement.
They added, “This is the third time we have been forced to open Ofir’s grave and rebury our son. The circle supposedly ‘closed’ back in December 2023, but it never truly closes. Since then, we have lived with a wound that constantly reopens, between memory and longing, between bereavement and mission.” The statement concluded with a plea: “Our Ofir went to Nova to celebrate his birthday and never returned. We ask all the people of Israel not to forget the fallen, not to forget the hostages, and to continue supporting the families until their return and beyond – only then will we have a future. Only then can we continue to live in our country.”
The Prime Minister’s Office condemned Hamas’s actions as a “clear violation of the agreement.” It added, “Prime Minister Netanyahu will hold a security discussion with the heads of the security establishment to discuss Israel’s steps in response to the violations.”
Outraged hostage families demanded an emergency meeting with Netanyahu, saying Hamas’s deceit must not go unanswered. “Hamas’s repeated violations and the IDF’s documentation prove what we have known and stated clearly and unequivocally: Hamas knows the location of the hostages and continues to act with contempt, deceiving the United States and mediators while dishonoring our loved ones. The Israeli government cannot and must not ignore this, and must act decisively against these violations,” declared the Hostages Families Forum.
“We are demanding an urgent and immediate meeting with the Prime Minister today, in which he will present a comprehensive plan to bring our loved ones home – every last one of them. Returning all hostages is the state’s obligation and a moral imperative – Hamas cannot be given a pass for violating the agreement. Success in implementing this agreement will be measured solely by the return of every last hostage – the people of Israel will not leave anyone behind and will accept nothing less,” the group emphasized.
Late Monday night, the casket containing the remains was handed over to IDF and ISA forces inside Gaza and brought across the border into Israel. After a brief military ceremony attended by the IDF Chief Rabbi, the remains were transferred to the National Center of Forensic Medicine. According to the Health Ministry, “the casket arrived for identification and for investigation of the cause and circumstances of death,” with forensic experts and laboratory staff “prepared to provide the fastest possible response, with the utmost sensitivity regarding information shared with the families.”
A Hamas official told Al Jazeera that the body had been found earlier that day in Gaza City’s Tuffah neighborhood and turned over to Israel around 9 p.m., just two hours before the deadline set by President Donald Trump. But IDF soldiers operating nearby told Arutz Sheva that they personally witnessed terrorists staging the handover—burying the body themselves and pretending to “discover” it moments before calling the Red Cross.
The deception followed reports earlier Monday from Asharq Al-Awsat that Hamas told mediators it could locate between seven and nine deceased hostages buried beneath rubble in Gaza. Israeli intelligence has confirmed that Hamas knows the locations of at least eight such bodies and could retrieve them at any time.
To facilitate recovery, Israel had recently approved Hamas and Red Cross search operations inside IDF-controlled zones of Gaza, beyond the so-called “yellow line.” Red Cross and Hamas teams began working in Rafah and were expected to expand operations to Gaza City, joined by Egyptian units authorized to enter the enclave.
As the drama unfolded, Trump warned Hamas that the world’s patience was running out. On Saturday, he issued a 48-hour ultimatum: “Hamas is going to have to start returning the bodies of the deceased hostages, including two Americans, quickly, or the other Countries involved in this GREAT PEACE will take action.” He added, “Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can return now, and, for some reason, they are not.”
“Perhaps it has to do with their disarming, but when I said, ‘Both sides would be treated fairly,’ that only applies if they comply with their obligations. Let’s see what they do over the next 48 hours. I am watching this very closely.”
{Matzav.com}
Efforts to finalize Israel’s draft law have hit another snag. Committee chairman Boaz Bismuth announced Monday evening that the scheduled debate, originally set for this Thursday, will be postponed to next Monday — following what he described as a “special request” from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
In a statement released by Bismuth’s office, it was confirmed that “in accordance with the request of the Prime Minister, the discussion on the draft law scheduled for this Thursday has been postponed. The discussion will take place next Monday, in order to allow the Prime Minister to review the draft bill that was submitted for his examination.”
Sources in the Knesset noted that the Prime Minister’s Office pressed Bismuth to delay the meeting, as the new date would avoid clashing with the massive Atzeres Tefillah planned for Thursday afternoon, an event expected to draw hundreds of thousands of participants at the entrance to Yerushalayim under the banner “The Cry of Torah – Against the Persecution of Lomdei Torah in Eretz HaKodesh.”
{Matzav.com}
As tensions rise over Hamas’s sluggish response to international pressure, Israeli officials believe the terror group is deliberately withholding the remains of key fallen soldiers, including Hadar Goldin and Colonel Asaf Hamami.
According to a Channel 13 News report released Monday night, intelligence assessments indicate that Hamas is aware of the burial sites of at least ten hostages who were killed, among them Goldin and Hamami. Despite this, the terror group is reportedly refusing to return their bodies because they have become “symbols.”
Hamami, the commander of the IDF’s Southern Brigade in the Gaza Division, was one of the first senior officers to fall on the morning of October 7. He was taken along with two other soldiers during the surprise Hamas invasion. Goldin, a Givati Brigade officer, was captured and killed during Operation Protective Edge in 2014 and has been held by Hamas ever since.
The new revelations come as Israel grows increasingly impatient with Hamas’s continued stalling. Earlier in the evening, Hamas returned the body of another fallen hostage.
Israeli officials say that while Hamas has the capability to retrieve and release the bodies, it is deliberately holding onto figures like Goldin and Hamami due to their symbolic significance, a move seen as part of the group’s ongoing psychological warfare against Israel.
{Matzav.com}
Two weeks after his release from Gaza, Yosef Chaim Ochana broke his silence, recounting the horror he endured and the desperate tactics he used to survive during his captivity. Speaking with Channel 12 on Monday, he described the moments when his life hung by a thread and how he managed to persuade his captors not to execute him.
“In the first place where I was kept, suddenly someone came into the room, angry, cocked his pistol, and put it to my head. ‘Tell me how many people you have killed, now I will kill you.’ I reply: ‘Zero, zero.’ Then he says, ‘Eh, you’re also lying to me,’ and was about to shoot me. At that point, some shiekh walks in, pulls him by the hand, and tells him, ‘Not now,'” Ochana recounted.
He recalled that the terrorists would intentionally torment them psychologically. “There were times that it was planned; they wanted to make us anxious. They sat us down and told us: ‘Your country did so and so, now we are taking revenge.’ They made us choose between each other, who to kill, who to just wound, they drew lots on us.”
Ochana described how simple greetings often turned into brutal assaults. “Once, they came, we said hello, and they suddenly began beating us. They were ordered to begin hitting us. They faced us against a wall, took off our shirts, and beat us. Since then, we would call it ‘the flashlights are coming.’ Every time we saw flashlights, we would have a panic attack. No one knew what to do; ‘Should I stand?’ ‘Should I sit?’ ‘Who will be the first to get it?’ We wanted to run as far in as possible, but then we understood that it won’t look good and that we need to spread out across the room. We preferred that they wouldn’t come for a week, two weeks, a month; that they would leave us alone.”
When faced with the threat of execution, Ochana said he appealed to their logic, hoping to convince them of his value alive. “At that point, I knew them, and I knew what was important to them, why they abducted me, and that the very fact that I was a hostage made me an ‘important bargaining chip.’ I told them, ‘What, now you’ll take revenge on me so that your citizens will be happy, but what about the prisoners waiting to be released in return for me from prison, to leave and see their families? If I die, they’ll release fewer prisoners.'”
{Matzav.com}
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By Rabbi Berach Steinfeld
In Parshas Lech Lecha, we find that after Avrohom Avinu’s victorious battle against the kings, he encountered Shem ben Noach, who served as the Kohen of that generation. The posuk tells us that Avrohom gave Shem maaser from all that he had taken.
In Parshas Toldos, we read that after Yitzchok left Avimelech, he planted a field, and it yielded “Meah She’arim” — one hundredfold. Rashi explains that Yitzchok measured the field’s extraordinary output in order to determine how much maaser he owed.
Later, in Parshas Vayeitzei, Yaakov Avinu pledges to Hashem, “Aser aasrenu lach”—I will surely tithe everything You give me. The Baalei Tosfos, citing the Medrash, note that Yaakov established the practice of giving maaser from monetary earnings. From this, Chazal derive the concept of giving a fifth of one’s income to tzedakah. This is learned from the double expression aser aasrenu—two tenths, equaling one fifth.
The Rambam (Hilchos Melachim 9:1) writes that Yitzchok instituted maaser, while the Raavad disagrees, arguing that Avrohom had already given maaser earlier. The Kesef Mishneh reconciles this by explaining that Avrohom’s gift to Shem was not maaser in the halachic sense, but rather tzedakah. His proof is that Avrohom gave only from the spoils of war, not from all his possessions. Yitzchok, by contrast, tithed all the produce of his fields.
Among the Rishonim, there is a discussion regarding maaser kesafim—whether separating a tenth from one’s income carries the same halachic weight as maaser from grain, or whether it is considered tzedakah with a minimum of one-tenth and a maximum of one-fifth.
One can harmonize the opinions by suggesting that each of the Avos introduced a different dimension of maaser: Avrohom gave maaser as tzedakah; Yitzchok tithed his agricultural produce; and Yaakov established the giving of maaser from monetary earnings.
The Shita Mekubetzes in Kesubos (50a) writes that one who earns money should first set aside a tenth for his own spiritual and religious needs, and then another tenth to give to the poor. He compares this to the two maasros given from grain—maaser sheni, eaten in Yerushalayim, and maaser ani, given to the poor. This, he explains, is likely what Yaakov meant by the double expression aser aasrenu lach. Yaakov did not say achamshenu (“I will give a fifth”) but rather “two tenths.”
Just as one may not use maaser from an already tithed crop to exempt another that has not yet been tithed, one cannot simply separate one fifth at once; the process must be done in two steps—first one tenth, then another tenth.
The Gemara teaches, Aser bishvil shetisasher—give maaser so that you may become wealthy. Indeed, maaser is not just an obligation; it is the wisest and most reliable investment a person can make.
{Matzav.com}
