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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Hamas Claims ‘Mix-Up’ With Body While Israel Awaits Return of 6 More Hostages
Israel says the two Bibas children and Oded Lifshitz, whose bodies were returned on Feb. 20, were murdered, but that the fourth body was not the boys’ mother.
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Israel says the two Bibas children and Oded Lifshitz, whose bodies were returned on Feb. 20, were murdered, but that the fourth body was not the boys’ mother.
Confronted with Israel’s charge that a body it received was not Shiri Bibas, nor even a hostage, the Hamas terrorist group said there may have been “an error or mix up” in bodies found in the rubble left by an Israeli airstrike Hamas says killed the woman and her two young sons.
Hamas said her remains appear to have been mixed with others. The group said it will “examine these allegations very seriously” and announce its findings.
However, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) says the boys were murdered, that the terrorists sought to obscure the evidence, and that Israel is sharing the evidence with partners around the world so they can verify it.
The bodies of Bibas’s two children, Ariel and Kfir, were positively identified by Israel’s national forensics center on Feb. 20 after their bodies and one that Hamas claimed was their mother, along with the body of retired journalist and peace activist Oded Lifshitz, 83, were returned earlier in the day.
The forensics director said the boys were murdered in November 2023 when Ariel was 4 years old and Kfir 10 months old. Lifshitz’s body was also positively identified, and the forensics center said that he, too, was murdered.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, spokesman for the IDF, said the forensic analysis showed the terrorists “did not shoot the boys” but “killed them with their bare hands.” The terrorists then “committed horrific acts to cover up these atrocities.”
“This assessment is based on both forensic findings from the identification process, and intelligence that supports the findings,” Hagari said on Feb. 21.
“We have shared these findings, intelligence and forensic, with our partners around the world so that they can verify it and that the entire world will know exactly how the Hamas terrorist organization operates.
“Ariel and Kfir were murdered, and then yesterday returned in a cynical and cruel ceremony in Gaza.”
Hamas has not offered any evidence to support its claim that the Bibas family and Lifshitz were killed in an air strike.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Feb. 21 that Israel would make Hamas pay for failing to release Bibas’s body as required.
“We will act with determination to bring Shiri home along with all our hostages—both living and dead—and ensure Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and evil violation of the agreement,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.
“Who kidnaps a little boy and a baby and murders them? Monsters, that’s who.
“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.”
Oded Lifshitz, left, whose body was returned to Israel on Feb. 20, 2025, after having been taken hostage by the Hamas terrorist group on Oct. 7, 2023, with his wife, Yocheved Lifshitz, who was also held hostage and then released. Daniel Lifshitz archive/via Reuters
The development came as Israel braced for the return of six more living hostages, the last agreed upon in the cease-fire’s first six-week phase.
Hamas said it would on Saturday, Feb. 22, release Omer Wenkert, 23; Omer Shem Tov, 22; Tal Shoham, 40; and Eliya Cohen, 27, all taken hostage on Oct. 7, 2023; and Avera Mengistu, 39, and Hisham Al-Sayed, 36, who have been held for more than a decade.
The latter two are said to be mentally ill and entered Gaza on their own.
In exchange, more than 600 Palestinian prisoners are scheduled to be released, including 50 sentenced to life imprisonment and 60 serving long prison sentences. Prisoners taken in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, account for 445.
This undated photo provided by Hostages Family Forum shows Shiri Bibas, who was abducted and brought to Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023. Hostages Family Forum via AP
Thursday marked the first time bodies of deceased hostages were returned as part of the exchange.
Still looming are negotiations for a cease-fire second phase to follow when the first phase ends on Mar. 2. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Feb. 18 that the talks would resume, but there has been no word on whether they have actually begun.
A second phase would include the return of all remaining living Israeli hostages, all men of military age. In return, the IDF would withdraw entirely from Gaza with a permanent cease-fire in place.
Israel has demanded that Hamas no longer play any role in the Gaza Strip, which it has controlled since 2007, when it executed, imprisoned, or expelled all Palestinian Authority officials there. The terrorist group, which has resumed recruiting new members to replace the thousands killed by Israel, has turned each hostage return into a propaganda show, forcing the hostages to appear on stage or leading them through large, jeering crowds, often of armed men.
Netanyahu faces pressure from some members of his ruling coalition to resume the fighting against Hamas and defeat it for good, but also faces pressure from hostage families and many members of the public to continue the truce and bring the remaining hostages home.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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