Body released by Hamas is not that of hostage Shiri Bibas, IDF says

Update, 6:50 p.m.: According to a statement from the Israeli Defense Forces, two of the bodies delivered by Hamas have been identified as the bodies of the Bibas children—4-year-old Ariel and 9-month-old Kfir. However, the body Hamas claimed was that of their mother, Shiri, is not, according to the Israeli military. The IDF added that no match can be found for any other hostage. In its statement, the IDF called the discrepancy a violation of utmost severity and issued a demand that Hamas release Shiri's body.

Original story:

Israel received the coffins of four deceased hostages from Hamas terrorists via the Red Cross, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday. Authorities were working to confirm the identities of the four individuals. They would publicly identify the bodies after their families were notified, Netanyahu said.

On Wednesday, the hostage advocacy group Bring Them Home Now said it had received word that Shiri Bibas, her children Ariel and Kfir Bibas, and Oded Lifshitz, were dead. Yarden Bibas—Shiri’s husband and Ariel and Kfir’s father—was released by Hamas earlier this year. Hamas militants kidnapped all five on Oct. 7. Shiri, Ariel, Kfir, and Oded spent more than 500 days in captivity. Shiri was 32 years old, her son Ariel was four years old, and her other son Kfir was nine months old, the Times of Israel reported. Lifshitz was 83 years old when he was kidnapped, the outlet said.

The Hamas terrorist organization is scheduled to release six living hostages on Saturday in exchange for Palestinians locked up in Israel. The exchange would conclude the first phase of the two sides’ ceasefire agreement. There are still 73 hostages in Hamas captivity, according to Bring Them Home Now.

So do we know it’s those four hostages that Israel received? Hamas said on Wednesday that members of the Bibas family would be among the deceased hostages returned to Israel. But the Bibas family issued a statement that same day saying that, while it was aware of Hamas’ claims, members of the family had not received confirmation that their loved ones were among the four deceased.

On Thursday, Oded Lifshitz’s family wrote in a statement that they had received official confirmation that his remains were among the four deceased individuals Hamas returned to Israel. The family had prayed and hoped for a much different outcome. Their healing process would not end until the last hostage was home, they said.

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s report in The Sift about the death of a Hamas leader in Lebanon.