Israel says Hamas has not handed over the body of Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas – saying it had instead received the remains of an “anonymous body without identification”.
Bibas was kidnapped with her sons – four-year-old Ariel, and nine-month-old Kfir – from the Niz Or kibbutz during the Palestinian militant group’s incursion into Israel in October 2023.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed it received the bodies of Ariel and Kfir on Thursday. However, it said the body that Hamas had claimed was their mother was not her and the group had therefore violated the ceasefire agreement.
“During the identification process, it was found that the additional body received was not that of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other abductee. It is an anonymous body without identification,” it said in a statement.
“Serious violation” of the ceasefire agreement by Hamas
“This is a very serious violation by the Hamas terrorist organization, which is required by the agreement to return four dead abductees. We demand that Hamas return Shiri home along with all of our abductees.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said Israel would make Hamas pay for failing to release Shiri’s body.
“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.
The body of journalist and peace activist Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was abducted, was also handed over on Thursday.
Hamas hands over bodies of Israeli hostages
Hamas has said they were all killed in Israeli airstrikes near the start of the war. The group has never provided evidence to back this up. Israel says the Bibas family were murdered by Hamas in captivity.
Hamas handed over the remains as part of the Gaza ceasefire agreement which was reached with Israel last month.
The bodies were transferred in four black coffins in a carefully orchestrated public display as a crowd of Palestinians and dozens of armed Hamas militants watched.
Israelis lined the road in the rain near the Gaza border to pay their respects as the convoy carrying the coffins drove by.
In Tel Aviv, people gathered some weeping, in a public square opposite Israel’s defense headquarters that has come to be known as Hostages Square.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu vowed to eliminate Hamas and said the four coffins meant “more than ever” that Israel had to ensure there was no repeat of the 7 October attack.
Netanyahu said: “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.”
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