Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday morning eulogized slain hostages octogenarian Oded Lifshitz and children Kfir and Ariel Bibas, and vowed to bring home the boys’ mother, Shiri Bibas, from Hamas captivity in Gaza.
“The cruelty of the Hamas monsters knows no bounds. Not only did they kidnap the father, Yarden Bibas, the young mother, Shiri, and their two small babies. In an unspeakably cynical manner, they did not return Shiri to her little children, the little angels, and they put the body of a Gazan woman in a coffin,” said Netanyahu in a video message to the nation.
“We will work resolutely to bring Shiri home together with all our abductees—both living and dead—and ensure that Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and evil violation of the agreement. The sacred memory of Oded Lipshitz and Ariel and Kfir Bibas will be forever enshrined in the heart of the nation. God will avenge their blood,” he continued.
The body that Israel received from Hamas on Thursday, which the terrorist organization said was that of Shiri Bibis, belongs to an unidentified person, the Israel Defense Forces said on Friday morning.
The National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv and the Israel Police identified two of the four returned bodies as Ariel and Kfir, whom terrorists “brutally murdered” in captivity in November 2023, the Israeli military said. At that time, the boys would have been ages 4 years and 10 months, respectively.
“Another heartbreaking morning for Israel, and for all who care about human life, and human dignity,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog tweeted on Friday.
“We prayed, we cried out, and we hoped this terrible news would not come. And yet, it arrived in the worst possible way—the bodies of Ariel and Kfir, so pure and innocent, were identified, while their beloved mother, Shiri, remains in captivity. This is a shocking and horrific violation of the ceasefire agreement, another cruel act by the terrorists of Hamas,” Herzog wrote.
“As we mourn this national tragedy, and as we anxiously await the expected release of six more hostages this weekend, we must remember our highest duty—to do everything in our power to bring every one of our kidnapped sisters and brothers home. All of them. Until the very last,” he added.
U.S. Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Adam Boehler called Hamas’s release of an unidentified body “horrific” and a “clear violation” of the ceasefire.
“I don’t know what [Hamas] thought when they put the body of somebody else in a coffin and said that it was the mother of two kids who had been brutally murdered, whether they thought Israel wouldn’t find that out or not, but it’s absolutely stunning,” Boehler said in an interview with CNN‘s Anderson Cooper.
“If I were them [Hamas], I’d release everybody or they are going to face total annihilation,” he added.
Earlier on Thursday, the Red Cross had handed four coffins to IDF troops and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) agents in the Gaza Strip, after the Geneva-based agency received the caskets from Hamas following a propaganda ceremony.
Israel filed a complaint with mediators and the Red Cross after the Hamas stage show, saying that it breached the terms of their agreement.
A brief military ceremony was held and presided over by the chief rabbi of the IDF before the bodies were taken to Tel Aviv for identification.
Israelis waving national flags and yellow flags in solidarity with the hostages lined the route of the convoy carrying the bodies to the National Institute of Forensic Medicine for identification.
There are now 70 hostages remaining in Hamas captivity in Gaza, of whom 36 are believed to be dead.