Remains of Israeli hostage returned following 'unfortunate' mixup
The body of Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas has been returned, her family has confirmed.
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After "mixing up" Bibas body, Hamas accuses Israel of "double standards"
"We received thousands of bodies from the Zionist enemy in blue bags without any identification on them," a Hamas official said.
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A senior Hamas official has acknowledged the group may have misidentified one of the bodies handed over to Israel in line with their ceasefire deal but went on to accuse the Israeli military of sending thousands of unidentified Palestinian bodies throughout the conflict.
"In the midst of the Zionist genocide that led to the killing of thousands of innocent Palestinian children and women, and the destruction of the Gaza Strip and all aspects of life in it, some unfortunate mistakes may occur especially since the Zionist bombing resulted in corpses of Israeli prisoners mixing with corpses of Palestinians, thousands of whom are still under the rubble," Hamas spokesperson and Political Bureau member Basem Naim said in a statement shared with Newsweek.
"We confirm that it is not in our values or our interest to keep any bodies or not to abide by the covenants and agreements that we sign on," Naim said.
Both Israel and the United States, which reject the "genocide" label applied to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) actions in Gaza, have accused Hamas of violating the terms of the temporary truce and prisoner swap deal after Israeli officials determined one of four bodies transferred by the group on Thursday was not one of the 251 hostages seized during the October 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war.
Naim argued that Israeli forces had shown disregard in their own process of returning bodies to Palestinians.
"Here, we would like to remind the world that we received thousands of bodies from the Zionist enemy in blue bags without any identification on them and without any respect for their humanity," Naim said, "and we did not hear any condemnation of these crimes from international officials and the official western media did not care about Palestinian human rights."
Fighters from a coalition of Palestinian factions carry one of the four coffins during the handover of the bodies purported to be those of four Israeli hostages to the Red Cross in Khan Yunis in... Fighters from a coalition of Palestinian factions carry one of the four coffins during the handover of the bodies purported to be those of four Israeli hostages to the Red Cross in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza on February 20. OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP/Getty ImagesWhy It MattersIsraeli officials and civilians had long awaited the return of 9-month-old Kfir Bibas, his 4-year-old brother, Ariel, and their 33-year-old mother, Shiri. The body of a fourth hostage, 83-year-old Oded Lifschitz, was also expected to be returned on Thursday.
Israeli officials have blamed Hamas for their deaths in captivity, while Hamas has alleged that all four hostages were killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.
"Contrary to Hamas's lies, Ariel and Kfir were not killed in an airstrike," IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a statement issued Friday. "Ariel and Kfir Bibas were murdered by terrorists in cold blood. The terrorists did not shoot the two young boys—they killed them with their bare hands."
"Afterwards, they committed horrific acts to cover up these atrocities," the IDF continued. "This assessment is based on both forensic findings from the identification process, and intelligence that supports the findings."
Hamas' apparent failure to transfer the remains of Shiri has further flared tempers in Israel, where outrage was already sparked over the imagery surrounding Hamas' handover ceremony. The group, alongside a number of other Palestinian factions engaged in the conflict, transferred the bodies in a militant show of force that included depictions of a fanged and bloodied Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, drawing international condemnation.
With the first phase of the ceasefire already being tested over both sides accusing the other of violations, the truce is set to expire altogether on March 1. Negotiations reportedly have yet to begin toward the second phase, which, under the initial framework proposed last year by then-President Joe Biden, could lead to a lasting peace.
Israel has refused Hamas' appeals for a commitment to not resuming the war past the deadline of the first phase of the ceasefire, and the IDF has already begun accelerating operations in the West Bank.
What to KnowOf the 251 hostages Israeli officials report were taken captive by Hamas in October 2023, 66 are believed to remain in Gaza, around half of whom have been declared dead by Israel. Israeli officials have also estimated that around 1,200 people, most of them civilians, were killed in the Hamas-led attack, with more than 400 IDF personnel killed in the ensuing war.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza has recorded the deaths of nearly 48,300 people in the conflict, without distinguishing between combatants and non-combatants. The IDF has estimated it has killed up to 20,000 Hamas fighters, including much of its core leadership, in the war, though the group disputes official Israeli figures.
The three-phase ceasefire deal first outlined by Biden and entered into implementation a day before President Donald Trump's inauguration has marked the most comprehensive effort to end the conflict to date. But serious disputes shed doubt on the path to peace, such as the future leadership of Gaza.
Trump has reiterated his commitment to overseeing an end to the conflict but has echoed Netanyahu in stipulating that Hamas could no longer rule in Gaza. He has also proposed the transfer of Palestinians outside of Gaza and even the U.S. assuming direct control of the territory in order to pursue development opportunities.
People hold photos of the Bibas family and Oded Lifshitz during a rally at the Hostages Square following the handover of four bodies by Hamas on February 20 in Tel Aviv, Israel. People hold photos of the Bibas family and Oded Lifshitz during a rally at the Hostages Square following the handover of four bodies by Hamas on February 20 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Amir Levy/Getty ImagesWhat People Are SayingIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a video address on Friday: "Today the heavens shake. The entire civilized world should condemn these horrific murders. The entire civilized world should join Israel in demanding the immediate release of all the hostages. All of Israel is united in grief.
"As the Prime Minister of Israel, I vow that I will not rest until the savages who executed our hostages are brought to justice. They do not deserve to walk this earth. Nothing will stop me. Nothing."
Hamas in a statement issued Friday: "We have received the occupation's allegations and claims from the mediators, and we will examine them with complete seriousness, and we will clearly announce the results.
"We also point out the possibility of an error or mix-up in the bodies, which had resulted from the occupation's targeting and bombing of the place where the (Bibas) family was with other Palestinians.
"We will inform the mediators about the results of the examination and investigation, and at the same time we call for the return of the body that the occupation claims it belongs to a Palestinian woman who was killed during the Zionist bombing."
U.S. envoy for hostages Adam Boehler during an interview with CNN on Friday: "It's horrific. It's a clear violation. And if I have one piece of advice for Hamas now, it's not only do you need to release [Shiri's] body immediately, but we have the bodies of four Americans that are still there and we have one American, Edan Alexander, ... he needs to come home. And if I were them, I'd release everybody, or they are going to face total annihilation right now."
What Happens NextTrump had earlier this month threatened that "all hell is going to break out" if Hamas did not release all hostages after the group threatened to delay a scheduled prisoner swap over alleged Israeli ceasefire violations. Thus far, the resumption of exchanges appears to have allayed this threat, but the latest controversy over the apparent misidentification of Shiri's body has again threatened to derail talks toward the next phases of the ceasefire agreement.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu has ordered a major intensification of IDF raids in the West Bank after a series of blasts targeted empty buses in central Israel hours after Hamas handed over the bodies. The incident is being treated as a suspected militant attack, though a senior Hamas leader shed suspicions of potential Israeli false-flag operations in comments shared with Newsweek on Thursday.
The Times of Israel reported Friday that two Jewish Israelis and one Palestinian have so far been arrested in connection with the bombings.
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