Israel says one of the bodies handed over by Hamas is not of any identified hostages
Hamas handed over four bodies to the Red Cross, out of which one was identified as 83-year-old Oded Lifshitz and two others as five-year-old Ariel Bibas and his two-year-old brother Kfir Bibas. The fourth body was said to be that of their 33-year-old mother, Shiri Bibas.
The Israeli military has claimed that one of the four bodies that Hamas released on Thursday as part of the ceasefire deal is that of an unidentified individual and not of any hostages taken on 7 October 2023. Hamas handed over four bodies to the Red Cross, out of which one was identified as 83-year-old Oded Lifshitz and two others as five-year-old Ariel Bibas and his two-year-old brother Kfir Bibas.
CREDIT: REUTERS
One of the bodies not of hostages
The fourth body was said to be that of their 33-year-old mother, Shiri Bibas, but on Friday, the IDF said that while it had positively identified the remains of two young hostages, the third body was not the boys¡¯ mother.
"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."
CREDIT: REUTERS
What happened to the Bibas family
According to Hamas, the two children, along with their mother, were killed in an Israeli airstrike, but the IDF has refuted the claim and said the two children "were brutally murdered by terrorists in captivity in November 2023", according to intelligence and forensic findings.
Kfir Bibas was just ten months old when he, along with the rest of his family, was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on 7 October 2023.
Only one member of the family is alive
The boys father, Yarden Bibas, was also taken captive by Hamas but was released on 1 February. The 34-year-old is the only person from the family to be alive, as the fate of Shiri's body remains unclear.
CREDIT: REUTERS
The two boys were the youngest hostages taken by Hamas, and the faces of the Bibas family had become the rallying cry in Israel for the safe return of those taken captive.
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Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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