Body Handed Over by Hamas Was Not That of Hostage, Israel Says

Israel said a body returned as part of a ceasefire agreement with Hamas was not that of a young mother taken hostage in October 2023, as the militant group had claimed.

Shiri Bibas, 33 at the time, was abducted with her two sons — Ariel, 4, and Kfir, who at nine months was the youngest of the hostages. The two boys’ flame-red hair was used frequently in Israel as an emblem. Yarden Bibas, the father, was also taken captive and held separately before being freed on Feb. 1.

The remains of the two boys were returned, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement. “During the identification process, it was determined that the additional body received is not that of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other hostage,” the IDF said in the statement posted on X Thursday night. “This is an anonymous, unidentified body.”

“Based on the intelligence available to us and forensic findings from the identification process, Ariel and Kfir Bibas were brutally murdered by terrorists in captivity in November 2023,” the IDF said, adding that “we demand that Hamas return Shiri home along with all our hostages.” 

The family, along with Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when kidnapped, were taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a tiny farming collective near Gaza which lost a quarter of its 400 inhabitants in the assault that triggered the war with Hamas. 

The statement did not refer to the remains of Lifshitz.

The exchange unfolded as negotiations for the second stage of the ceasefire are due to start, with the intention of turning the six-week pause in fighting into an open-ended halt. 

Talks are expected to be complicated by opposing goals from the warring sides. Israel is adamant that Hamas be demilitarized and removed from power, while the Palestinian militant group says it’s open to ceding the governing of Gaza but shows no willingness to lay down weapons. Hamas is designated a terrorist group by the US and many other countries.

If the two sides can’t agree, the war could soon start up again, risking more deaths in Gaza and the lives of remaining Israeli hostages. 

Handover

It marked the first time deceased hostages were returned in negotiations, although Israeli forces previously recovered remains as part of military operations in Gaza. The handover occurred on a stage set up by Hamas in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis, in front of a billboard showing a satanic-looking Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the assertion that Israeli missiles killed those being returned.

Israeli officials have in the past acknowledged the accidental killing of some hostages as a result of army actions. But in other cases, they said, recovered bodies bore signs of small-arms fire that pointed to execution by Hamas.

The handover ceremony was witnessed by hundreds of armed militants and a number of former Hamas prisoners freed in recent exchanges — part of the Iran-backed group’s effort to illustrate its ongoing presence and power despite Israel’s attempt to destroy it.

Hamas is due to free six living hostages Saturday, accelerating the original plan of a staggered return across two weeks. Palestinian prisoners are due to be handed over in exchange, after Thursday’s bodies have been identified.

Lifshitz, who like many residents of Gaza’s border areas was a peace activist, was taken alive. Both of Shiri Bibas’ parents were killed in the original attack.

For Israelis, a hand-held video of Shiri Bibas cradling Kfir and Ariel in a blanket as they were hustled from their home was among the most abiding images of the Oct. 7 attack.

Thousands of Hamas operatives crossed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and abducting 250. In the war with Israel, more than 48,000 Gazans have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

With assistance from Jon Herskovitz.

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