Netanyahu vows revenge over hostage remains incident

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday called the Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas monsters for withholding the body of an Israeli hostage that it promised to return. Hamas militants handed over the body of a deceased Gazan woman, not the body of Shiri Bibas, Netanyahu said.

Hamas did hand over the bodies of 84-year-old Oded Lifshitz and Shiri’s two sons. Ariel and Kfir were four years old and less than a year old, respectively, when they were kidnapped. Netanyahu called the refusal to hand over Shiri’s body a brazen violation of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and the terrorist group.

What did Hamas have to say? The terrorist group stated on Friday that a mix-up with Shiri’s body may have occurred because of Israeli bombing in the area where the hostages’ bodies were being prepared for their return to Israel. Hamas insisted it did not intend to violate the ceasefire agreement and that its recent conduct proved it was trying to cooperate with the terms of the agreement. The terrorist group said it would look into the matter, and demanded the return of the Gazan woman’s remains, which it claimed to have inadvertently sent in place of those of Shiri Bibas.

Dig deeper: Read my report in The Sift yesterday about the supposed return of the hostages.