On Thursday, the 20th of February, Hamas handed over to the Red Cross the remains of four hostages who had been captured in Gaza since the group’s attack on Israel on the 7th of October 2023, including a mother and two children from the Bibas family, whose fate is one of the most powerful symbols of the trauma inflicted that day, and 84-year-old Oded Lifshitz, a veteran peace activist, reports the British broadcaster BBC.
It is the first time the group has handed over the remains of hostages since the ceasefire began last month. Six more living hostages are due to be released on Saturday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “the heart of the entire nation is torn” and added that Israel was dealing with “monsters”.
In staged scenes reminiscent of the recent live hostage handover, four coffins were displayed on a stage in front of a crowd of people in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza. A Red Cross official at a table with armed Hamas fighters signed documents before the coffins were taken away in Red Cross vehicles to be handed over to Israeli forces.
The Red Cross had previously called on Hamas to carry out a dignified handover of the bodies after widespread condemnation of the manner in which it had released hostages in recent weeks.
The news – which has not been confirmed by the Israeli government – that 33-year-old Shiri Bibas and her sons (who would now be five and two years old) are dead, sparked mourning across the country. The government says it will confirm the names of the deceased only after a forensic medical examination.
Bibas’ family in Israel said in a statement that they were “distraught” and added that their “journey is not over” until they receive final confirmation of what happened to the boys and their mother.
It is not known how Shiri, Kfir and his brother Ariel died, if confirmed. In November 2023, Hamas claimed that they had been killed in an Israeli air strike but provided no proof. At the time, Benny Gantz, then a member of the Israeli war cabinet, said there was no confirmation of this claim.
The family was taken with their father, Yarden Bibas, from Kibbutz Nir Oz when Israel was attacked on the 7th of October 2023. The 35-year-old Yarden was released on the 1st of February along with two other hostages in exchange for 183 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Oded Lifshitz, a retired journalist, was also taken from Nir Oz with his wife, Yoheved. Two weeks later, the eighty-five-year-old woman was released by Hamas, but Oded was kept in captivity.
The release of the hostages’ remains was part of the ceasefire agreement that entered into force on the 19th of January. By the end of the first six weeks of the ceasefire, the two sides agreed to exchange 33 hostages for around 1 900 prisoners.
Negotiations to move to the next stage of the agreement, which would see the release of the remaining hostages and an end to the war altogether, were due to start at the beginning of this month but have not yet started.
So far, 24 hostages have been exchanged for more than 1 000 prisoners.
Seventy hostages taken on the 7th of October are still being held in Gaza. Three other hostages taken more than a decade ago are also being held. About half of all hostages still held in Gaza are believed to be alive.
The October Hamas attack killed around 1 200 people, mostly civilians, and captured 251. In response, Israel launched a military campaign against Hamas, during which at least 48 297 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health.