The body returned from Gaza is not the mother of Bibas, says the Israeli army

One of the four bodies returned from Gaza to Israel on Thursday is not the host Shiri Bibas, as Hamas states, said the Israeli army.

The news that Shiri Bibas, 33, and his two children, Ariel and Kfie, who were now five and two years old, were dead triggered a lot of pain in Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces (FDI) informed the Bibas family that their children’s bodies have been identified after Hamas gave Israel on Thursday to their remains.

But the third body was not that of his mother, says the FDI.

Hamas has not yet commented on Israel’s claim.

“During the identification process, it was determined that the additional body received is not that of Shiri Bibas, and no coincidence was found for any other hostage. This is an anonymous and unidentified body,” the FDI published in X.

“This is a rape of the maximum severity by the Hamas terrorist organization, which is bound by the agreement to return to four dead hostages. We demand that Hamas return to Shiri home along with all our hostages.”

Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas were 32, four and nine months when they were kidnapped during Hamas attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023.

Hamas released children’s father, Yarden Bibas, 34, on February 1.

Israel has confirmed that the fourth body returned on Thursday was that of the veteran peace activist, Oded Lifshitz.

The launch of the hostage agencies was agreed as part of the high fire agreement that entered into force on January 19. Israel has confirmed that there will be eight.

The two parties agreed to exchange 33 hostages for about 1,900 prisoners at the end of the first six weeks of the fire.

The conversations about progress to the next phase of the agreement, by virtue of which the remaining hostages would be released and the war would end permanently, had to begin earlier this month, but they had not yet begun.

Twenty -eight hostages and more than 1,000 prisoners have been exchanged so far.

Sixty -six hostages taken on October 7 are still arrested in Gaza. Three other hostages, taken more than a decade ago, are also detained. It is believed that approximately half of all hostages that are still in Gaza are alive.

Some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023 and another 251 taken to Gaza as hostages. Israel launched a massive military campaign against Hamas in response, which has killed at least 48,297 Palestinians, mainly civil, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.