LONDON — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed “revenge” on Friday after the Israeli military said one of the four bodies recently released by Hamas did not include a hostage.
Hamas, the militant group that governs the war-torn Gaza Strip, said it had handed over the remains of four deceased Israeli hostages on Thursday: 32-year-old Shiri Bibas; her two children — Ariel Bibas, 4, and Kfir Bibas, 8 1/2 months; and 84-year-old Oded Lifschitz.
After conducting a forensic analysis on the returned bodies, Israeli officials positively identified Lifschitz and the two Bibas children but said the fourth body was not that of their mother nor any other hostage, according to the Israel Defense Forces, which accused Hamas of committing a “very serious violation” of the current ceasefire agreement.
“The cruelty of the Hamas monsters knows no bounds,” Netanyahu said in a statement Friday. “Not only did they kidnap the father, Yarden Bibas, the young mother, Shiri, and their two small babies. In an unspeakably cynical manner, they did not return Shiri to her little children, the little angels, and they put the body of a Gazan woman in a coffin.”
“We will act with determination 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,” he added.
The IDF, citing “the assessment of the professional authorities,” said Ariel and Kfir Bibas “were brutally murdered in captivity in November 2023 by terrorists.” Their father, 35-year-old Yarden Bibas, was also kidnapped during the Hamas-led terror attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, but he survived and was freed earlier this month.
In response, Hamas said the remains of Shiri Bibas were mixed with other human remains beneath the rubble of the place where she was being held after Israeli airstrikes “deliberately” destroyed the area, “killing her and her children.”
“Netanyahu himself is the one who issued the orders for the direct and merciless bombing, and he is the one who bears full responsibility for killing her and her children in a horrific and brutal manner,” Ismail Al-Thawabta, director-general of Gaza’s Hamas-run Government Media Office, said in a statement Friday, noting that the Israeli military has killed more than 30,000 Palestinian women and children in Gaza since the current war began.
Hamas is expected to release another six living hostages on Saturday followed by four more bodies next week as part of the agreed terms for the first phase of the ceasefire, which began Jan. 19 and is supposed to last 42 days.
Negotiations to set the terms for the second phase have not started, but mediators are pushing to have talks begin as soon as possible to allow enough time for discussion before it begins, Qatar’s foreign ministry said Tuesday. Hamas has accused Israel of avoiding talks and says it’s ready to negotiate.
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