Hamas has announced to give Israel the remains of four hostages who died in captivity, including those of Ariel and Kfir Bibas kidnapped at the age of 4 and 8 months and their mother. The bodies will be returned to the authorities this Thursday, February 20.
While it has given details on the next hostage releases, Hamas has announced that it will give Israel the remains of several people who died during their captivity this Thursday, February 20. The bodies of four hostages will be returned to the Israeli authorities, confirmed the Hebrew state in the process on Tuesday, February 18. Among the remains will be the last members of the Bibas family who were removed in the Kibbutz of Nir Oz, during the attack on October 7, 2023, according to the press release from Khalil al-Hayya, head of the negotiation team of the movement Palestinian Islamist.
The fate of the mother, Shiri, and her two children, Ariel and Kfir, aged five and two respectively, aroused strong concerns since February 1, when the husband and father of these hostages, Yarden Bibas , was released by Hamas with two other men. The 33 -year -old woman and her two sons should have been part of the first hostages released according to the priority order provided for in the terms of the truce and the conditions of the release. Bibas children were among the youngest hostages in Hamas, Kfir was even the youngest captive since he only had eight and a half months at the time of his abduction. Children, women and the elderly were to be the first was released. Elderly and injured men had to be by following, before the younger and more robust men.
As of January 19, when the first waves of liberation took place, the absence of the two children among the liberated people raised many questions and fears. Which were more numerous and more important after the liberation of the father, Yarden Bibas. The man had been removed at a different time from the rest of his family and was not selected in the same place as his children. After his release, he clung to “hope” to see his wife and children alive again as his sister, OFRI, at the Times of Israel : “He understands the fears, fears about their fate, but he also knows that nothing is certain, and he clings to hope. We too, we hung on this hope for 15 months, and We continue to do it.
Relatives of the Bibas family had also demanded responses from the Israeli government: “We will no longer tolerate uncertainty. We are demanding answers,” said Dana Silberman-Sitton, Sister of Shiri Bibas, during a public declaration to Ramat-Gan’s Sheba Hospital.
Death never confirmed by Israel
Hamas had announced the death of Shiri Bibas and his two children in an Israeli strike in November 2023, a month after the attack and the numerous hostage kidnappings. The Hebrew state, for its part, had never confirmed the deaths with the family. The four family members had not been released during the first truce in November 2023, but they were on the list of 33 liberable hostages during the first phase of the new truce agreement in Gaza, Between Israel and Hamas. And if Israel announced, before the first exchanges of January, that eight of these people had died in captivity, the government did not specify the names of the deceased.
Several signs tended to confirm the death of Bibas children. The Israeli government did not insist on the release of the family, as it could do with other hostages like the Civil Arbel Yehud, until you endanger the agreement of the truce, pointed out Times of Israel. A detail that today suggests that the hostages were no longer alive.