One of four bodies returned from Gaza to Israel on Thursday is not hostage Shiri Bibas, as claimed by Hamas, the Israeli military said.
The news that Shiri Bibas, 32, and her two sons, Ariel and Kfir, who would now be aged five and two, were dead triggered an outpouring of grief in Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has informed the Bibas family that the bodies of her sons have been identified after their remains were given to Israel by Hamas on Thursday.
But the third body was not that of their mother, the IDF says.
It demanded the return of her body along with the other remaining hostages. Hamas has not yet commented on Israel’s claim.
“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. This is an anonymous, unidentified body,” the IDF posted on X.
“This is a violation of utmost severity by the Hamas terrorist organisation, which is obligated under the agreement to return four deceased hostages. We demand that Hamas return Shiri home along with all our hostages.”
The IDF said that the two children “were brutally murdered by terrorists in captivity in November 2023”, according to intelligence and forensic findings. Hamas had said the boys and their mother were killed in an Israeli bombing.
Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas were aged 32, four and nine months when they were kidnapped during the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023.
The children’s father Yarden Bibas, 34, was released by Hamas on 1 February.
Israel has confirmed that the fourth body returned on Thursday was that of veteran peace activist, Oded Lifshitz.
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.
The two sides agreed to exchange 33 hostages for about 1,900 prisoners by the end of the first six weeks of the ceasefire.
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.
Twenty-eight hostages and more than 1,000 prisoners have so far been exchanged.
Sixty-six 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.
About 1,200 people – mostly civilians – were killed in the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023 and 251 others taken back to Gaza as hostages. Israel launched a massive military campaign against Hamas in response, which has killed at least 48,297 Palestinians – mainly civilians – according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Also on Thursday, three buses exploded in Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv, in what Israeli police said is a suspected terror attack.
