‘How Can You Bury Your Child in Installments?’ Family of Ofir Tzarfati Hy’d Slams Hamas’ ‘Continuous Emotional Abuse’

Richelle Tzarfati, mother of murdered hostage Ofir Tzarfati Hy’d, says she has been forced to open her son’s grave for the third time.

Ofir Tzarfati, who was kidnapped on October 7, 2023, from the Nova and later killed in captivity, had his body recovered by the IDF in December 2023 and again in March 2024.

Hamas released additional parts that require kevurah to Israel last night.

Speaking at a press conference at the family home in Kiryat Ata, Richelle Tzarfati described the return of more remains as “continuous emotional abuse” by the terror group, saying she is forced again to bid her son farewell.

“For the third time. The third time I’ve been required to bury my Ofir,” Tzarfati said.

She detailed the emotional toll, describing the wound that is reopened each time the grave is opened.

“It’s a punch to the gut, an arrow to the heart, a wound that opens again and again,” she said.

“We thought we had closed the circle, that we were able to lay Ofir to rest, but today we discovered we never received all of him,” she continued. “I can’t grasp this. How can you bury your child in installments? How can you relive this once, and again, and again? Each time the grave is opened, my heart opens too, and another small piece of me is buried inside.”

“And what turns the pain into something unbearable is the way Hamas chooses to play with the bodies of our boys. With our pain. With videos, manipulations, and vile presentations,” Tzarfati added.

She accused Hamas of deceiving the world through “false presentations of ‘searches’ and ‘discoveries,’ when it is completely clear they know where most of the hostages are.”

Amid the grief, she noted “one moment of light,” which is the return of Ofir’s remains. “I choose to remember Ofir not through the horrors, but through his life,” she said.

Tzarfati’s sister, Shoval Tzarfati, condemned Hamas for what she called a cruel manipulation, returning her brother’s body instead of one of the remaining 13 hostages, in violation of the agreement signed and approved by both sides.