On Feb. 20, Hamas turned over four bodies of hostages to Israel—an elderly man, and a 32-year-old woman, along with her two children. Hamas issued a statement today saying that it was investigating the claim by Israel that the body of the woman was not that of hostage Shiri Bibas but rather that of a Palestinian woman, reported Al Jazeera. In the statement, Hamas said there might have been “the possibility of an error or overlap in the bodies” as it promised to “clearly” announce the findings of its probe. The group added the mix-up may have been the result of Israeli forces bombing “the place where the family was with other Palestinians.” Bibas’ two children, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, were identified by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine and Israel Police.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of committing a “cruel and evil” violation of the ceasefire deal. “We will act with determination to bring Shiri home along with all our hostages—both living and dead—and ensure Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and evil violation of the agreement,” Netanyahu said.
Al Jazeera notes that Hamas and Israel have offered opposing accounts of how the Bibas family and Oded Lifshitz, the fourth hostage, were killed, putting further stress on the ceasefire deal. The Israeli military claimed Feb. 21 that intelligence assessments and forensic analysis of the bodies of the Bibas children indicated that they were deliberately killed by their captors, though it provided no details on the claim.
Ismail al-Thawabta, the director of the Gaza Government Media office on Feb. 21 again laid the blame for the deaths on Netanyahu. Hamas had previously announced that the four had been killed in an Israeli air attack in November 2023. “Netanyahu himself is the one who issued orders for the direct and merciless bombing, and he is the one who bears full responsibility for killing her and her children with horrific brutality,” he wrote on the social media site X.
