Hamas says the remains of Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas appear to have been mixed with other human remains in what it claims was an “Israeli airstrike”.
Israel said the body handed over by Hamas was not Shiri’s, saying it had instead received the remains of an “anonymous body without identification”.
Israel today said forensic evidence showed Shiri and her two children were murdered in captivity by Hamas.
Ms 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.
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“This is a very serious violation by the Hamas terrorist organisation, 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, calling it a “cruel and malicious violation”.
“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 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.
The British ambassador to Israel, Simon Walters, said: “The Israeli authorities have now confirmed from forensic evidence that the little Bibas children were murdered in captivity. This is a gruesome new low, compounded by the failure to return the body of Shiri, their mother. May Kfir and Ariel rest in peace.”
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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 defence headquarters that has come to be known as Hostages Square.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin 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.
Mr 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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Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said: “Agony. Pain. There are no words. Our hearts – the hearts of an entire nation – lie in tatters.”
United Nations human rights chief, Volker Turk, called the parading of the four bodies “cruel” and “inhumane” in a statement on Thursday.
He said: “Under international law, any handover of the remains of deceased must comply with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, ensuring respect for the dignity of the deceased and their families.”
The Bibas family has become a powerful symbol of the 251 Israelis kidnapped on 7 October – not least because Kfir was the youngest taken.
The children’s father, Yarden Bibas, was released on 1 February as part of the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel.
International correspondent
The return of the bodies of four Israeli hostages is a “sombre moment” for everybody in Israel and Jews across the world, our international correspondent Diana Magnay says.
She says the two young boys, Ariel and Kfir, “really became a symbol of the tremendous suffering 7 October caused”.
“Now, to have them returned back in this way is tragic.”
Referring to the scenes of coffins being transferred to the Red Cross, Magnay says Hamas has chosen to use this “as a propaganda opportunity”.
“They have missiles on the stage where the four coffins were, saying they were killed by US bombs,” she explains.
She says Hamas’s main message is “this was caused by you, you should take responsibility for it”.
She adds that 7 October was caused by Hamas, and has brought “untold suffering to both Israel and Palestinians”.
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Meanwhile, six living hostages, the final due to be freed under the first phase of the Gaza truce deal, will be released on Saturday, according to Hamas.
Israelis who survived being held prisoner in Gaza have been released in small groups since the first six-week phase began last month.
The deal has provided a vital pause in the fighting that’s devastated Gaza and left tens of thousands dead.
At least 1,200 people were killed in the attack that started the war.
Since then, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks. Its figures do not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
