Former Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Saturday called for Jerusalem to open “the gates of hell” against Hamas, following the return of six hostages by the terrorist group earlier in the day.
The six living hostages redeemed from captivity in the Gaza Strip on Saturday were Eliya Cohen, 27, Avera Mengistu, 39, Hisham al-Sayed, 36, Omer Shem Tov, 22, Tal Shoham, 40, and Omer Wenkert, 23.
On Thursday, Israel thought it had received the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two children, Ariel and Kfir. However, it was discovered on Friday that the body was not of Shiri but of an unidentified person.
The Israeli National Institute of Forensic Medicine and the Israel Police identified two of the four bodies returned by Hamas per the ceasefire with Israel as Ariel and Kfir, whom terrorists “brutally murdered” in captivity in November 2023, the Israeli military said. The boys would have been 4 years old and 10 months old, respectively.
“Together with all the people of Israel, I was moved to see the return of those released from Hamas captivity—Omer Neukart, Omer Shem Tov, Eli-Hai Cohen, Tal Shoham, Avraham Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed,” tweeted Ben-Gvir.
“We all saw the unimaginable cruelty of the Nazis toward them and toward Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas. The State of Israel must not remain silent about this,” he added.
“It is time to open the gates of hell on Hamas, we must return to war, to destroy and to avenge!”
Hamas’s failure to release Shiri’s remains infuriated Israeli leaders.
On Sunday, the Prime Minister’s Office declared that it was delaying the release of terrorists “in light of Hamas’s repeated violations, including the ceremonies that humiliate our hostages and the cynical exploitation of our hostages for propaganda purposes.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for revenge on Friday, saying “These Hamas monsters also cynically refused to bring back the boys’ mother, Shiri, and sent the body of a Gazan woman instead, in brazen violation of the agreement.”
He added: “And as the prime minister of Israel, I vow that I will not rest until the savages who executed our hostages are brought to justice. They do not deserve to walk this earth. Nothing will stop me. Nothing.”
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon wrote to U.N. Secretary General António Guterres on Friday insisting that the Security Council convene an emergency session in response to “the findings on the heinous murders of Kfir, Ariel and Shiri Bibas.”
“There are no words that can describe such an atrocity,” he said.
Hamas “continues to violate every basic moral value,” wrote Danon. The terror organization “returned an unidentified body, as if it were a worthless shipment,” he added.
According to Israel’s Channel 12 News on Sunday, Hamas is concerned that Israel will renew the fighting in Gaza.
For that reason, it included armed men from all the terrorist groups in the Strip in the handover ceremony on Saturday “so as not to be left alone responsible in the event that the war does resume,” the report said.
