U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanded on Saturday that Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip immediately free all remaining hostages, or else be eradicated.
“Hamas’s treatment of hostages, including its brutal murder of the Bibas family, further illustrates their savagery and is yet another reason why we are saying these terrorists must release all of the hostages immediately or be destroyed,” tweeted Rubio.
The Islamist terrorist group sparked outrage after handing over the wrong body for Shiri Bibas on Thursday. The bodies of her two sons, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, along with that of Oded Lifshitz, were confirmed to be theirs.
Following the outrage, on Friday night Hamas returned a second body to the Red Cross, which in turn delivered it to Israel for identification.
On Saturday, the National Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir in Tel Aviv positively identified the remains as being those of Shiri.
“We share in the deep sorrow of the Bibas family and embrace them warmly. We will never forget and never forgive,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday night.
“So far, we have brought back 192 hostages—of them 147 alive and 45 deceased,” he said. “Hamas still holds 63 hostages. The Israeli government remains committed to acting decisively to bring all our hostages home—the living back to their families and the fallen to a proper burial in their homeland.”
Meanwhile, U.S. Deputy Middle East Envoy Morgan Ortagus on Friday described Gaza as a “depraved society.”
“You have ... a society that has to not only be demilitarized, but has to be deradicalized,” Ortagus said in an interview with Fox News. She noted that Gazan civilians participated in the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, including the taking of hostages.
“President [Donald] Trump sent a very clear and strong signal about the deradicalization that has to happen to this population. ... If you didn’t believe President Trump a few weeks ago, look at the image of the crowd clapping and cheering as babies go back in their coffins into Israel without their mother,” she said.
