Israeli and international leaders expressed grief and fury on Friday after a forensic examination confirmed that Hamas had returned to Israel the remains of young brothers Ariel and Kfir Bibas, but that another body sent by the terror group was not their mother, Shiri Silberman Bibas.
The Israel Defense Forces said early Friday that through forensic evidence and intelligence, authorities had assessed that the two Bibas brothers were “brutally murdered” by terrorists in Gaza in late November 2023. Ariel was 4 years old, and Kfir was just 10 months old when they were killed.
But specialists at the Abu Kabir forensic institute were unable to identify the body claimed by Hamas to have been Shiri Bibas, who was kidnapped along with her two young sons from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, while the family’s father Yarden was taken separately.
Instead, the IDF said that the body did not match the DNA of any male or female hostage.
“This is a very serious violation by the Hamas terrorist organization, which is required by the agreement to return four dead hostages,” said the IDF. “We demand that Hamas return Shiri home, along with all of our hostages.”
“We share the deep sorrow of the Bibas family at this difficult time and will continue to make every effort to return Shiri and all the hostages home as soon as possible,” the military added.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the “unspeakable cynicism” of Hamas on Friday morning, in a video statement responding to the news from the forensics laboratory.
“The cruelty of the Hamas monsters knows no bounds,” Netanyahu said.
“Not only did they kidnap the father, Yarden Bibas [who was freed alive earlier this month], the young mother, Shiri, and their two small babies. But in an unspeakably cynical manner, they did not return Shiri alongside her young children, the little angels, and they put the body of a Gazan woman in the coffin.”
Netanyahu vowed that Israel will “act resolutely to bring Shiri home along with all our hostages — both living and dead — and ensure that Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and evil violation of the agreement.”
The prime minister also expressed sadness at the confirmation that the other three bodies returned were those of Ariel and Kfir, as well as Oded Lifshitz, 83, also from Nir Oz.
“The three of them were brutally murdered in Hamas captivity in the first weeks of the war,” Netanyahu said. “May God avenge their blood — and we too will avenge.”
President Isaac Herzog likewise lamented the deaths of the Bibas children and denounced the terror group for its “horrific” bait-and-switch regarding their mother.
“The bodies of Ariel and Kfir, so pure and innocent, were identified, while their beloved mother, Shiri, remains in captivity,” he said. “This is a shocking and horrific violation of the ceasefire agreement, another cruel act by the terrorists of Hamas, who continue to show utter disregard for humanity.”
Turning to the expected release of six hostages on Saturday, the president said Israel was “anxiously await[ing]” their return.
Israel must “do everything in our power to bring every one of our kidnapped sisters and brothers home. All of them. Until the very last one,” he said.
Despite Hamas’s failure to return Shiri Bibas to Israel, an unnamed Israeli source told the Ynet news outlet that Jerusalem didn’t want to break off the hostage release and ceasefire deal with Hamas at this stage, as the remaining six living captives of the first phase are slated to be freed on Saturday.
Instead, Israel has lodged a protest with mediating countries as it weighs its next steps, the source said, adding that Hamas’s actions had caused “great shock.”
“We demand Shiri’s return,” the source said, but added that it was “important” to Israel that “the next round [of releases] be held as planned.”
To that end, Ynet reported that the military is bracing for the expected release of hostages Omer Shem-Tov, Tal Shoham, Eliya Cohen and Omer Wenkurt, who were all abducted on October 7. Hamas is also expected to release Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who have been held captive by the terror group since they entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, respectively.
They are believed to be the last living hostages – apart from Shiri Bibas, whose status Israel is still unable to verify — on the list of “humanitarian” captives to be released during the deal’s ongoing first stage, which is drawing to a close. Hamas is expected to return the remains of four more slain hostages next Thursday.
The second part of the three-stage deal calls for the release of all the remaining hostages, in exchange for a permanent end to the war and the release of more Palestinian security inmates.
The government has given conflicting statements about the future of the agreement, sometimes saying that it intends to proceed to the second stage, but at times opening the door to a return to fighting.
Appearing to use careful language ahead of Saturday’s slated release, the Hostage Families Forum said that it had experienced “terrible shock” to learn that the body handed over was not that of Shiri or any other hostage, and called on the government to find a way to bring her back as quickly as possible.
“Our demand of the Israeli government is to find the right, wise and quickest way to bring back Shiri and all the hostages,” the forum said. “Our loved ones are there and we do not know their fate. Don’t leave them there in the hands of the vile murderers.”
The forum appealed for Israel to “stand wisely and responsibly in the face of violations of the agreement, and not let up.”
Kibbutz Nir Oz, the community from which the Bibas family was snatched, eulogized the murdered children in a statement on Friday morning.
“We will remember Ariel for his rolling laughter and Kfir with his innocent smile,” it said.
Ariel was “a smiley and playful child,” the kibbutz said, recalling his shock of bright red hair, and how he had “loved superheroes, tractors and cars, and never stopped jumping and climbing.”
Kfir was “a calm and smiley baby,” Nir Oz eulogized. “Wherever we went, he smiled happily at anyone who reached out to him.”
“In these difficult moments, we demand the immediate return of their mother Shiri Bibas, and will not stop fighting until she returns, together with all the hostages from the kibbutz and the State of Israel,” the kibbutz added.
Lawmakers from the coalition and opposition alike were quick to mourn the deaths of Ariel and Kfir, whose plight captured the hearts of the nation over the last 16 months, and condemn Hamas for failing to return their mother.
“Two little children who were murdered, returned without their mother,” wrote Opposition Leader Yair Lapid in a post on X. Hamas is a despicable child murderer, and it continues to abuse an entire nation.”
“The shock is deep and the pain is unfathomable,” he said, sending his condolences to Yarden Bibas, who himself was released from Hamas captivity on February 1.
“This morning, Israel must demand of the mediators that all the living and the dead be returned as quickly as possible,” Lapid continued. “This nightmare must end. The families can’t hold their breath any longer.”
MK Aryeh Deri, who leads the Sephardic, ultra-Orthodox Shas party, shared a quote from the Book of Lamentations (1:12): “Look and see: Is there any agony like mine?”
“The heart is torn by the awful news of the murder of the precious boys,” he wrote on X. “Hamas has compounded one sin with another, and cynically and horrifically left Shiri Bibas, the innocent boys’ mother, in captivity. The world must look this horror in the eyes, to understand the depth of evil, and to stand without hesitation alongside Israel in her just struggle against murderous terrorism.”
“Even when the pain is unbearable, we are united and determined to return all our hostage siblings, the living and the dead, and to act with an iron fist to destroy Hamas,” he vowed. “May the innocent children’s memories be enshrined forever.”
Religious Zionism party leader Bezalel Smotrich, who opposed the hostage-ceasefire deal and has threatened to leave the coalition if Israel does not return to fighting after its first stage, warned that the “severe violation by Hamas and the continuing abuse cannot be ignored, nor can the knowledge that they cruelly murdered little Ariel and Kfir in captivity.”
“The only solution is the destruction of Hamas, and we must not delay it,” said the far-right finance minister. “Every day that passes without a return to the destruction of Hamas is seen as weakness, and we could end up, God forbid, paying expensive and painful prices, like October 7.”
Following the revelation, Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said on Friday morning that Hamas gave a stranger’s body to Israel rather than the hostage’s remains “as if it were a worthless shipment.”
“This is a new low, an evil and cruelty with no parallel,” he said. “There are no words that can describe such an atrocity.”
He demanded that the UN Security Council condemn “this heinous crime” and call for the immediate return of Shiri Bibas.
Since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 invasion of southern Israel — when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, amid acts of brutality and sexual assault, sparking the subsequent war — the Security Council has refused to condemn the terror group.
Sixty-seven of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas has so far released 24 hostages — 14 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of three Israeli captives during a ceasefire that began in January. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that.
Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014. The body of another IDF soldier, also killed in 2014, was recovered from Gaza in January.