Family members and forensic experts confirm that the new remains turned over by Hamas belong to the deceased Bibas.Israel’s Bibas family has confirmed that the remains of Shiri Bibas have been returned by Hamas, a day after it announced that the Palestinian group had returned an unidentified body.
On Friday, Hamas released the remains of Bibas, whose misidentification in a handover earlier prompted anger in the Israeli government and threatened to derail the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal.
Bibas’s community, Kibbutz Nir Oz, also confirmed her identity on Saturday, just hours before the seventh captive-prisoner exchange under the ceasefire agreement.
“After the identification process at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, this morning we received the news we feared the most. Our Shiri was murdered in captivity and has now returned home to her sons, husband, sister, and all her family to rest,” the Bibas family said in a statement published on Saturday.
Hamas had agreed to hand over the bodies of Bibas and her two young sons Kfir and Ariel along with the remains of a fourth captive on Thursday under a ceasefire that has halted fighting in Gaza since last month. Advertisement
Hamas said the children and their mother were killed in an Israeli air attack in November 2023.
Four bodies were delivered, but Israel later said one of the remains did not belong to the elder Bibas.
On Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to “ensure that Hamas pays the full price” for w …
