Gaza: Hamas on Thursday handed over the bodies of four Israeli hostages, including a woman and her two children who were the youngest captives abducted by the Palestinian militant group in October 2023. It is for the first time that Hamas returned the remains of hostages amid an ongoing ceasefire agreement aimed at ending the Gaza war.
Israel will reportedly not confirm their identities until full DNA checks have been completed.
The bodies of the Bibas family and Oded Lifshitz have been returned to Israel in a cruel and grotesque display, accompanied by music and propaganda. My heart aches for their families, and I pray they may someday find solace and comfort. š
Hamas Statement:
āš On the handoverā¦ pic.twitter.com/2ZCcLxxReiā PitunisWorld š (@ScMesab) February 20, 2025
The remains were those of Shiri Bibas (32), her children Ariel (4) and Kfir; and Oded Lifshitz. Kfir was nine-months-old when he was abducted along with his mother and brother, Ariel. Lifshitz, a retired journalist who had campaigned for the recognition of Palestinian rights, was 83 at the time of abduction.
In November 2023, Hamas announced that Shiri and her sons were killed in an Israeli airstrike. It did not provide any other details of their death. The militant group had also cited the same reason for Lifshitzās killing.
Isreali authorities never backed Hamas’s claim. Shiriās husband, Yarden Bibas, was kidnapped separately and released earlier this month after 16 months. Lifshitz’s wife Yocheved, who was also kidnapped, was freed during a week-long ceasefire in 2023. Hamas had announced in a statement that it did “everything in (its) power to protect and preserve the lives” of the hostages.
Hamas alleged that Israel’s “brutal and continuous bombardment prevented them from being able to rescue all” the abductees.
On Thursday, hundreds of people had gathered in Gaza’s Khan Younis city to witness the handover of the remains by armed Hamas members in black and camouflage uniforms to the Red Cross. They brought the four coffins to a staged area.
Looking back at a heart wrenching video:
Meanwhile, the internet is flooded with a heart wrenching video of Ariel meeting her brother Kfir for the first time. Social media users reshared the video of the infant and her sister, while condemning such barbaric acts of taking away their lives.
This is the day Ariel met his brother Kfir for the first time.
Please remember them. š§šļø pic.twitter.com/2Ua7VUqQG0
ā The Mossad: Satirical and Awesome (@TheMossadIL) February 19, 2025
