The body that the Palestinian militant group Hamas claimed to have returned as part of a ceasefire deal is not that of the Israeli woman, Shiri Bibas, who was taken hostage in 2023, according to Israeli authorities. This unsettling discovery has caused heightened concerns for the precarious truce and prisoner-for-hostage exchange agreement between Hamas and Israel. Hamas has admitted that there may have been a misidentification.
Previously, Hamas stated it had returned the remains of four hostages: Shiri Bibas, aged 32; her two young children, Ariel, 4; Kfir Bibas, under a year old; and Oded Lifshitz, 83. They were all abducted from Nir Oz, a village close to Gaza, which bore the brunt of Hamas' unexpected assault on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The Bibas family's ordeal has been imprinted on the minds of many Israelis, symbolizing the cruelty of the Hamas attack. Video footage vividly capturing a distressed Ms. Bibas holding her two children close as they were taken away by Palestinian gunmen has had a profound impact on the Israeli community.
Hamas claimed that all four hostages were casualties of Israeli airstrikes. However, Israel stated that three of the four who were returned on Thursday - identified through DNA testing as Mr. Lifshitz and the two Bibas children - were in fact murdered by their abductors.
Israeli military spokesman, Daniel Hagari, added that the Bibas children were killed by their captors "with their bare hands." He confirmed that Israel had shared these forensic and intelligence findings with its allies.