Hamas sent ‘anonymous, unidentified’ body in Shiri Bibas’ place, IDF says
The bodies of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, as well as Oded Lifshitz, were confirmed by the IDF
Israelis wave the national flag as the convoy of vehicles transporting the bodies of the four Israeli hostages handed over by Hamas, including the Bibas family, arrives at the entrance to the National Center of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv on February 20. Photo by Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images
By Louis Keene February 20, 2025
Israelis and people around the world are facing a new wave of horror with the revelation that Hamas delivered an unidentified body Thursday instead of Shiri Bibas in the latest hostages-for-prisoners ceasefire exchange, the IDF said.
The IDF confirmed it had identified the remains of the Bibas children, Ariel and Kfir, along with that of Oded Lifshitz, all of whom were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz in the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.
The military said the country’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine, in collaboration with police, could not identify the body that Hamas said was Shiri Bibas.
“During the identification process, it was determined that the additional body received is not that of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other hostage. This is an anonymous, unidentified body,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement. “This is a violation of utmost severity by the Hamas terrorist organization, which is obligated under the agreement to return four deceased hostages. We demand that Hamas return Shiri home along with all our hostages.”
The statement, issued in the early hours of Friday morning in Israel, was the latest shock in a whirlwind of strife and tragedy for Israel. The Bibas family became faces of the captives’ plight and the movement to free them. Their husband and father, Yarden Bibas, was taken captive separately and released alive earlier this month.
Hamas had said in November 2023 that Shiri, Ariel and Kfir had been killed in an Israeli airstrike; Israel investigated that claim but had not confirmed it. Now, the IDF statement said Hamas murdered the boys in November 2023.
“IDF representatives informed the Bibas family that their loved ones, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, have been identified,” the statement said. “According to the assessment of professional officials, based on the intelligence available to us and forensic findings from the identification process, Ariel and Kfir Bibas were brutally murdered by terrorists in captivity in November 2023.”
This week, Hamas announced that it would be returning their bodies to Israel. On Wednesday, the Israeli government confirmed it would be receiving their bodies. But shortly afterward, relatives of the Bibas family said they had not given permission for the government to announce that Shiri, Ariel and Kfir were dead.
Four coffins returned to Israel on Thursday morning. One of the bodies was quickly confirmed to be hostage Oded Lifshitz, 84. The remaining three were widely assumed to belong to Shiri and her children, and people across Israel and the world publicly mourned their deaths.
The news came at the end of a day when Jews around the world were grieving the confirmation of the Bibas deaths, which had been suspected for months but was not confirmed until more than 500 days after they were captured. Many took to social media posting the color orange — a reference to the bright red hair of the Bibas children — and some vented their frustration with Americans who supported Palestinians while Hamas held hundreds of people captive.
The botched transfer throws into doubt the final hostage exchange of the first phase of the Jan. 19 ceasefire. Hamas is slated to release three living hostages before March 2, including Hisham al-Sayed and Avera Mengistu, who have been held in Gaza for over a decade. In exchange, Israel would release all women and children who were arrested in Gaza since Oct. 7.
JTA contributed to this report.
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