The family of Shiri, Kfir and Ariel Bibas have accused the Israeli government of “abandoning” them and said their painful journey “is not over” as Shiri’s body remains missing.
The Israeli military has accused Hamas of violating the Gaza ceasefire deal after forensic tests revealed one of the bodies returned on Thursday was not that of Shiri Bibas.
In a statement the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said the body did not belong to any other hostage and was instead an anonymous Palestinian woman.
Her children – baby Kfir and his four-year-old brother, Ariel, were returned from Gaza on Thursday, the IDF confirmed.
“This is a violation of utmost severity by the Hamas terrorist organisation, which is obligated under the agreement to return four deceased hostages,” the Israeli military said. “We demand that Hamas return Shiri home along with all our hostages.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday Israel would make Hamas pay for failing to release the body of Shiri, 32, as agreed.
“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,” he said in a video statement.
Hamas has admitted that they likely handed over the remains of another woman, claiming that Shiri’s remains were “turned into pieces after apparently being mixed with other bodies under the rubble”. The militant group maintained an IDF air strike hit the place where she was being held.
But the IDF said that the two children “were brutally murdered by terrorists in captivity in November 2023”, according to intelligence and forensic findings. They claimed the boys were killed by terrorists “in cold blood” with their “bare hands”.
The Bibas family have long been the most potent symbol in Israel of the attacks of 7 October 2023.
They were abducted with hundreds of other Israelis by Hamas and taken into Gaza. Yarden Bibas, Shiri’s husband and the boys’ father, was also abducted but was later released alive.
In a statement released on Friday, Shiri’s family said they were devastated that she cannot be buried with her young children who were “murdered by Hamas”.
Ofri Bibas Levy, the sister of Yarden and aunt of Ariel and Kfir, said: “We are not seeking revenge right now. We are asking for Shiri. Save the lives of the living hostages, and return all the fallen for burial.”
She added: “My sweet nephews were taken alive from their home and murdered by a cruel terrorist organisation while in captivity. They didn’t deserve such a fate.
“Our painful journey, which has already lasted 16 months, is not over. October 7th continues. We are still waiting for Shiri and fear for her fate.”
She also accused Netanyahu of “abandoning” the Bibas family in captivity.
“It was Israel’s responsibility and obligation to bring them back alive.” she said. “There is no forgiveness for abandoning them on October 7th, and no forgiveness for abandoning them in captivity.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, we did not receive an apology from you in this painful moment.”
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said it was “horrified and devastated by the news that their mother, Shiri, was not returned—despite the agreement and our desperate hopes”.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews described the news that Shiri’s body was “substituted” as “deeply disturbing”.
“This depraved act towards the suffering Bibas family also has little regard to another family, possibly Palestinian, that has now lost the body of a loved one. This underscores Hamas’ total lack of humanity.”
Reacting to the release of the bodies yesterday, Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board, added: “The Jewish people are heartbroken today.
“A world where a baby, a toddler and a grandfather are kidnapped and held hostage before coming back in coffins defies human understanding.”
UK-linked Hamas hostage Oded Lifshitz, 83, was earlier confirmed as one of four returned to Israel by Hamas on Thursday.
He was a former journalist and in an op-ed in left-leaning Haaretz in January 2019, he listed what he said were Netanyahu’s policy failures.
The release of hostages’ bodies was agreed as part of the ceasefire deal which came into effect on 19 January, and Israel has confirmed it expects eight bodies will be handed over in total.
Thursday’s handover ceremony, conducted in Gaza’s Khan Younis, was marked by a display of four black coffins on a stage, observed by masked members of Hamas and other factions.
The bodies were taken to the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Jaffa for formal identification – many Israelis lined the route, while others gathered in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv.
In a recorded address released after the remains of the hostages were handed over, Israel’s prime minister vowed to eliminate Hamas, saying “the four coffins” obliged Israel to ensure “more than ever” that there was no repeat of the 7 October attack.
“Our loved ones’ blood is shouting at us from the soil and is obliging us to settle the score with the despicable murderers, and we will,” he said.
Over the course of the 16-month-old conflict, Israeli officials have repeatedly asserted that Hamas would be destroyed and the roughly 250 hostages abducted would be returned home.
During Thursday’s handover, one militant stood beside a poster showing coffins wrapped in Israeli flags. It read “The Return of the War = The Return of your Prisoners in Coffins”.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned “the parading of bodies and displaying of the coffins of the deceased hostages in the manner seen this morning, which is abhorrent and appalling,” his spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, said.
On Saturday the return of six living hostages is due in exchange for hundreds more Palestinians, expected to be women and minors detained by Israeli forces in Gaza during the war.
Talks on progressing to the next phase of the deal – under which the remaining living hostages would be released and the war would end permanently – were due to start earlier this month but have not yet begun.
Some 66 hostages taken on 7 October are still being held in Gaza. Three other hostages, taken more than a decade ago, are also being held. About half of all the hostages still in Gaza are believed to be alive.
In Israel on Thursday, three buses exploded in Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv, in what Israeli police said is a suspected terror attack.
Devices in two other buses failed to explode, they said, adding that “large police forces are at the scenes, searching for suspects”. No casualties have been reported.
Israeli police said the five unexploded bombs were identical and equipped with timers, and bomb squads were defusing them.
In response, Netanyahu’s office announced he had ordered the IDF to carry out an “intensive operation against centers of terrorism” in the West Bank.
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