A collage of posters showing photos of Israeli hostages Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, who were held in the Gaza Strip after the 7 October, 2023 attack by Hamas militants. Photo: AFP
By Tamar Michaelis, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Helen Regan, CNN
The body of Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas was not among the four returned by Hamas from Gaza on Thursday, Israel's military says, accusing the Palestinian militant group of a "violation of utmost severity" of the precarious ceasefire deal.
Hamas said it would investigate Israel's claims, insisting that it intended to abide by the terms of the ceasefire deal reached with Israel.
The Israeli military confirmed on Friday that two of the four bodies handed over were Shiri's young sons Kfir and Ariel, along with another captive Oded Lifshitz.
However, during the identification process, the military determined one of the bodies received was not that of Shiri Bibas, and did not match with other hostages.
"This is an anonymous, unidentified body," the military said in a statement.
"We demand that Hamas return Shiri home along with all our hostages," added the military.
The revelation is the latest tragic twist for the Bibas family, who have become among the most recognizable victims of the 7 October terror attacks, with confirmation of their deaths triggering an outpouring of grief in Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday described Hamas' failure to return Shiri's body as "an unimaginable cynical move."
"We will operate determinedly to bring Shiri home along with all our hostages - both the living and the dead - and ensure that Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and vicious violation," he said, adding that the body handed over to Israel belonged to a "Gazan woman."
Hamas said on Friday it affirmed its "seriousness and full commitment" to its obligations under the ceasefire agreement with Israel and pledged to examine Israel's claims.
"We will examine these claims with complete seriousness," the group said in a statement, adding that it would "announce the results clearly."
"We have no interest in not committing or keeping any bodies with us," it said.
The group also reiterated remarks made earlier by the Hamas-controlled government media office in Gaza, which said that Shiri's mutilated body may have been mixed up with other bodies under rubble in Gaza as a result of an Israeli airstrike.
"We also point out the possibility of an error or overlap in the bodies, which may have resulted from the occupation targeting and bombing the place where the family was with other Palestinians," Hamas said.
It also called on Israel to return the body of the Palestinian woman Israel claimed to have been handed over instead of Shiri.
Hostage releases to continue
Palestinian Hamas militants gathering at the site of the handing over of the bodies of four Israeli hostages in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza on 20 February. Photo: AFP / Abood Abusalama
At just nine months, Kfir was the youngest hostage kidnapped into Gaza and the youngest to have been killed.
His brother Ariel was aged four.
During Thursday's macabre handover, Hamas handed back four black coffins bearing the photos of Shiri, Ariel, Kfir and Lifshitz, flanked by masked militants in a highly orchestrated and propaganda-filled ceremony.
Despite the development, the Israeli military said plans for the release of a further six Israeli hostages on Saturday were not expected to change.
Hamas said in November 2023 that the Bibas children and their mother had been killed in an airstrike, a claim it repeated Friday without presenting any evidence.
Spokesman for the Israel Defence Forces Daniel Hagari said on Friday Ariel and Kfir "were brutally murdered during their captivity in Gaza in the first weeks of the war."
Hagari claimed "the terrorists didn't murder them with gunfire - they murdered them with their bare hands. Afterwards, they committed terrible actions in order to try and hide the horrific acts."
Hagari cited forensic findings and intelligence as backing those claims, but did not provide specific evidence.
Neither did he specify whether Hamas militants - or members of another group - killed the children.
Hamas has vehemently denied Hagari's claims, which it labelled "sheer lies."
"This is a desperate attempt to evade the responsibility of (Israel's) criminal army for the killing of the family, in addition to (its) other crimes that have affected the prisoners in the Gaza Strip," the group said.
Israel has in the past said that surveillance footage recovered in Khan Younis showed the Bibas family was at a site belonging to the Mujahideen Brigades, a militant faction allied to Hamas.
Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon called on the UN to condemn "Hamas' barbarity" and make an "immediate demand for the return of Shiri to her family."
"There are no words that can describe such an atrocity. Hamas not only murdered Ariel and Kfir Bibas in cold blood - a four-year-old boy and a 10-month-old baby - but continues to violate every basic moral value even after their death," Danon said.
"Instead of returning Shiri, the mother of Kfir and Ariel, Hamas returned an unidentified body, as if it were a worthless shipment. This is a new low, an evil and cruelty with no parallel."
The failure to return Shiri's remains also prompted a senior US official to warn that Hamas must return her body and all the remaining hostages held in Gaza or "face total annihilation."
Speaking to CNN late on Thursday, the United States envoy for hostage affairs Adam Boehler said Israel had told him the boys had been murdered a month after they were taken.
"I don't know what they thought when they put the body of someone else in a coffin and said that it was the mother of two kids that have been brutally murdered," he told CNN's Anderson Cooper, as he called on Hamas to release all remaining hostages and return Shiri's body.
"If I were them, I'd release everybody or they're going to face total annihilation," he added.
Fresh agony for father
The children's father Yarden Bibas was also kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel on 7 October, 2023.
He was released by Hamas earlier this month after 484 days of captivity, one of the 19 Israeli hostages freed alive under the January 2025 ceasefire deal.
The two boys and their mother, who was 32 when she was taken hostage, were not released from Gaza during the temporary truce in late November 2023, even though the deal agreed between Israel and Hamas called for all women and children to be set free.
The IDF said at that time they believed the family was being held by other militant groups, not Hamas.
Following his release, Yarden was met by his sister and father in a sombre reunion.
"Sadly, my family hasn't returned to me yet. They are still there. My light is still there, and as long as they're there, everything here is dark," Yarden said in a statement published shortly after his return.
The announcement that one of the bodies is not Shiri has triggered fresh grief and anger in Israel.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement Friday, "we are horrified and devastated" that Shiri was not returned "despite the agreement and our desperate hopes."
"Israel and the international community must stand firm in ensuring that the agreement is upheld while acting with wisdom and urgency to address these blatant violations. Every step must be taken with careful responsibility to secure the safe return of all hostages," it added.
A video of the Bibas family's abduction became one of the symbols of the brutality of the 7 October terror attack.
It showed a terrified Shiri clinging tightly to her children wrapped in a blanket, with Ariel still sucking his pacifier.
Following their abduction, a photo of Kfir holding a pink elephant toy and looking directly at the camera with a toothless smile has been featured in numerous campaigns and protests around the world.
His brother Ariel, just four at the time of the attack, was often shown in a photo taken after he had a haircut, still wrapped in the hairdresser's cape. Earlier photos of the family showed Ariel, a big fan of Batman, with locks of long red hair.
The picture was shown on the large screens at New York City's Times Square, printed on t-shirts worn by protesters in London, Berlin and elsewhere, and brought to the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos by Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres condemned Thursday's handover for the "parading of bodies and displaying of the coffins."
- CNN
