The body of the Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas has been identified, Israel’s army radio reported early on Saturday, adding that Bibas was likely killed in captivity with her children.
The confirmation came as Israelis and Palestinians braced for another tense exchange of hostages, prisoners and detainees on Saturday after uproar in Israel over allegations that two child hostages were “brutally murdered” by Hamas, and the group’s initial failure to deliver the body of their mother, instead returning the corpse of an unidentified woman.
The remains of the Bibas children, 85-year-old Oded Lifshitz and a fourth person who was supposed to be Shiri Bibas were handed over to Israel on Thursday as part of the first stage of a fragile Gaza ceasefire agreement.
After the Israeli military said DNA testing showed the woman’s body released was not Shiri Bibas or any other hostage, Hamas claimed Shiri’s body had been “mistakenly mixed” with others who were killed and buried under the rubble in Gaza.
Hamas on Friday released another body to the Red Cross. In a statement on Saturday, the Bibas family said: “After the identification process at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, this morning we received the news we feared the most. Our Shiri was murdered in captivity and has now returned home to her sons, husband, sister, and all her family to rest.”
The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement on Friday afternoon that autopsy results and military intelligence concluded that members of Hamas “used their bare hands” to kill Ariel Bibas, four, and his 10-month-old brother, Kfir, when they were seized in October 2023.
“Their father, [the recently released hostage] Yarden Bibas, looked me in the eyes and asked that the whole world know and be shocked by the way they murdered his children,” the military spokesperson R Adm Daniel Hagari said in a video address.
In Israel and around the world, the fate of the Bibas family has come to embody the trauma of the Hamas attack that ignited the war in Gaza.
Hamas said early in the conflict that the boys and their mother, Shiri, 32, were killed in an Israeli bombing in November 2023. There was no immediate comment from the militant group on the IDF’s allegation of murder.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was quick to capitalise on the crisis, accusing Hamas of breaking the truce’s terms. “We will work with determination to bring Shiri home together with all our hostages – both living and dead – and ensure that Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and malicious violation of the agreement.”
However, relatives of the family accused the Israeli leader of abandoning their loved ones. They also warned against using their fate as a pretext for a return to fighting amid uncertainty over implementation of the next phase of the deal, which is due to begin in early March.
In the second stage, Hamas is supposed to return the remainder of the hostages in exchange for Israel ending the war, but Netanyahu has long resisted pressure to end the hostilities: much of his far-right coalition government opposes such a step if it leaves Hamas as a significant force inside the Gaza Strip. The third phase is supposed to address the exchange of bodies, a reconstruction plan for Gaza and future governance.
“It was Israel’s responsibility and obligation to bring them back alive,” said Shiri’s sister-in-law, Ofri Bibas, in a statement released on behalf of the family through the Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
“Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, we did not receive an apology from you in this painful moment.”
In the statement, which came prior to the identification of Shiri’s body, Ofri Bibas continued: “Our painful journey, which has already lasted 16 months, is not over. We are still waiting for Shiri … For Ariel and Kfir’s sake, and for Yarden’s sake, we are not seeking revenge right now. We are asking for Shiri.
“Their cruelty only emphasises the urgent need to bring Shiri back to us, save the lives of the living hostages and return all the fallen for burial.”
The truce in the war in Gaza came into effect on 19 January, pausing 15 months of brutal fighting that killed about 48,000 Palestinians and triggered a devastating humanitarian crisis. About 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas attack that ignited the war, and 250 were taken hostage.
On Friday, Hamas released the names of the six living hostages it plans to release at the weekend under the terms of the ceasefire. The Palestinian prisoners media office said more than 600 Palestinian prisoners were also to be freed.
The announcements are a sign that the fragile deal remains on track despite the tensions caused by the furore surrounding the Bibas’s fate.
Also on Friday, Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said he had ordered the country’s military to ramp up its operations in the occupied West Bank after a series of bus explosions near Tel Aviv the previous day. There were no casualties in the blasts, which a group identifying itself as a branch of Hamas’ military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, from the West Bank city of Tulkarem, stopped short of taking responsibility for in a Telegram post.
Israel’s latest operation in the West Bank, launched immediately after the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, has wreaked widespread damage, killed more than 50 Palestinians, caused thousands to flee their homes and ripped up roads and infrastructure in refugee camps.
