The bodies of four hostages in Hamas were given to Israel this Thursday, February 20. These are the first died captives returned to the Israeli authorities and among them are the two children Bibas and their mother according to the Palestinian group.
The bodies of four hostages were given to Israel this Thursday, February 20. Hamas exhibited four black coffins on a stage mounted in Khan Younès, in the south of the Gaza Strip, before handing them over to the agents of the International Committee of the Red Cross (CICR). The coffins were brought by hooded and armed fighters from Hamas.
On each funeral safe, the Palestinian Islamist group had hung the hostage photo to be returned to the Israeli authorities. These were photos of the three members of the Bibas family: mother Shiri and her two children Ariel and Kfir, who were 4 years and 8 and a half months old at the time of their abduction by Hamas. The fourth hostage given to Israel is Oded Liffhitz, 83 years old during his kidnapping.
After a simulacrum of funeral ceremony under the banners of Hamas, whose images were broadcast by the Palestinian group but not relayed by the Palestinian authorities, the remains of the four hostages left the Gaza Strip in the Red Cross vehicles. The humanitarian agents carried out a first on -site verification, sheltered behind paravents.
The bodies must be led to a medico-legal institute near Tel Aviv to carry out a formal identification and determine the causes of the death of the hostages. The process could take up to 48 hours, but it is also possible that the bodies cannot be identified according to information from Franceinfo. Relatives of the Bibas family called in a press release “not to praise the funeral” of children Ariel and Kfini, or their mother Shiri “until the final identification is confirmed”.
Uncertainties on the death of the Bibas family
All members of the Bibas family had been removed by Hamas during the attack on October 7, 2023 in the Kibbutz of Nir Or, near the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip. Bibas children were the youngest hostages held by Hamas and their captivity aroused strong concerns. Shiri and his two children had been retained by the Islamist group for more than 16 months, when they should have been among the first hostages released during the Trier, that of November 2023 when other children captured by Hamas were given to Israel and the one that has been underway since January 19.
Their absence among the released hostages fed fears concerning their fate and their survival. A fear that worsened on February 1 during the release of the first hostage men, including Yarden Bibas, the father of this family. The man was removed at a different time from the rest of his family and was not selected in the same place as his children during his captivity.
The four members of the Bibas family appeared on the list of 33 liberable hostages during the first phase of the current truce in Gaza. 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. Nothing indicates that the Israeli government had had confirmation of the death of the Bibas family members or not
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 had never confirmed the information. Until the announcement of the discount of the bivas children and their mother, the relatives of the family said attached to “hope” to see them alive with the Times of Israel.