Body released by Hamas is Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas, family says

Human remains returned by Hamas to Israel on Friday are those of hostage Shiri Bibas, her family said Saturday, two days after the Palestinian militant group returned the wrong body.

“Last night, our Shiri was returned home,” the Bibas family said in a statement Saturday local time through the Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters, a group that represents the families of those in Hamas captivity.

“Following the identification process at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, we received this morning the news we had dreaded — our Shiri was murdered in captivity and has now returned home to her sons, husband, sister, and all her family for rest,” the family said.

The Israel Defense Forces, known as the IDF, has not released a statement confirming that the remains released Friday are those of Bibas.

Hamas released the remains of four hostages on Thursday, in a ceremony that featured four caskets on a stage as part of the first phase of a strained ceasefire agreement with Israel.

The IDF later said that testing showed the bodies of Bibas’ two children, 4-year-old Ariel and 10-month-old Kfir Bibas, and 84-year-old Oded Lifshitz, were among those returned — but that the body purported to be Shiri Bibas was someone else.

The incident caused outrage from Israeli officials, and the IDF called it “a very serious violation” of the ceasefire.

Hamas called it a mistake, and said that Bibas’ remains may have been “mixed” with others when they were hit by an Israeli airstrike.

Hamas leader Mahmoud Mardawi told media outlet Al Arabiya that Bibas’ remains had now been returned, and the International Red Cross said that it has received a set of human remains and transferred them to Israeli officials.

In announcing that testing showed the first remains were not that of Shiri Bibas, the IDF said the remains also did not match any other hostage held by Hamas. “It is an anonymous body without identification,” it said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of “an unimaginably cynical act,” and said that Hamas failed to return Bibas and “instead placed the body of a Gazan woman in the coffin.”

Bibas and her two children were abducted from their kibbutz, Nir Oz, in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack against Israel. Ariel was 4 years old and Kfir was just shy of 9 months old when they were taken. They were the two youngest hostages.

Shiri Bibas’ husband, Yarden Bibas, was taken separately and released by Hamas on Feb. 1 as part of the ceasefire agreement.

Israel’s military said Ariel and Kfir were “brutally murdered in captivity” in November 2023.

IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Friday that the children were not shot, but that “they killed them with their bare hands.”

“Afterwards, they committed horrific acts to cover up these atrocities,” Hagari said.

Hamas has claimed that Shiri Bibas and her children were killed by an Israeli airstrike, and called the IDF’s claims lies.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Saturday in announcing that Shiri Bibas has been identified that they shared in the family’s grief.

“The return of Shiri marks the end of 505 agonizing days of uncertainty and immense pain,” the group said. “We share in the deep grief of the Bibas family and will continue to support and stand by them.”

A spokesperson for the IDF said Friday that military representatives were in contact with the Bibas family, and that reports that a new body has been released were under review.