JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas on Friday of committing a “cruel and evil” violation of the Gaza ceasefire deal by failing to return the captive Shiri Bibas.
“We will act with determination to bring Shiri home, along with all of our captives - both the living and the fallen - and ensure that Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and evil violation of the agreement,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.
Advertisement (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});Hamas on Thursday handed over bodies it said were of four hostages, including three members of the Bibas family - Shiri Bibas and her two young sons - along with an elderly captive.
While the identities of the Bibas boys and the elderly hostage were confirmed by Israeli forensic experts, the fourth body was not that of Shiri Bibas, according to Israeli officials and as claimed by Hamas.
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“It is likely that Mrs Bibas’ body was mistakenly mixed with others found under the rubble,” the official said on condition of anonymity, adding that the group was “investigating” the issue.
Advertisement (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});While Hamas has claimed that Shiri Bibas was killed early in the war, Israel has never confirmed her death.
Netanyahu said the fourth body was, in fact, that of a Gazan woman.
Advertisement (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});“The cruelty of the Hamas monsters knows no bounds,” he said.
“Not only did they abduct the father, Yarden Bibas, the young mother, Shiri, and their two small infants in an unimaginably cynical manner, but they also failed to return Shiri to her small children, the little angels, and instead placed the body of a Gazan woman in a coffin,” he said.
The two boys - Kfir and Ariel - had become symbols of the hostage crisis along with their mother.
During their attack on October 7, 2023, that triggered the Gaza war, Hamas filmed and later broadcast footage showing the Bibas family’s abduction from their home near the Gaza border.
Ariel was then aged four, while Kfir was the youngest hostage at just nine months old.
Their father, who was also seized during the attack, was released earlier this month.
An Israeli group advocating for the release of all hostages from Gaza said on Friday it was “horrified” that Hamas had not returned Shiri Bibas.
“We are horrified and devastated by the news that their mother, Shiri, was not returned - despite the agreement and our desperate hopes,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.
The elderly hostage whose remains were returned on Thursday was identified as Oded Lifshitz, a veteran journalist and long-time defender of Palestinian rights.
Palestinian militants staged a ceremony to return the four bodies at a former cemetery in the southern Gazan city of Khan Yunis.
The repatriation of the bodies was part of the six-week initial phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which took effect on January 19 and has so far led to the release of 19 living Israeli hostages in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners.
Israel and Hamas announced a deal earlier this week for the return of eight hostages’ remains in two groups this week and next, as well as the release of the six living Israeli captives on Saturday.
Palestinian prisoners are also set to be freed in Saturday’s swap, but were not part of Thursday’s handover.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has said talks will begin this week on the truce’s second phase, aiming to lay out a more permanent end to the war.
A Hamas spokesman on Thursday accused Netanyahu of “procrastinating regarding the second phase”, saying the group was “ready to engage”.
Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP on Wednesday that Hamas was ready to free all remaining hostages held in Gaza in a single swap during phase two.
Hamas and its allies took 251 people hostage during the October 7 attack. Prior to Thursday’s handover, there were 70 hostages still in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military has said are dead.