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CNN
22-02-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Hamas stages macabre ceremony to release bodies of four Israeli hostages, said to include Bibas children and their mother
Hamas on Thursday put on a macabre handover ceremony in central Gaza to return the bodies of four Israeli hostages taken on October 7, 2023. It was the first time the militant group has released the remains of dead hostages since its attack on Israel, and marked a somber turn for a country more used to elation when former captives returned home alive. Among those released were said to be the bodies of Shiri Bibas, who was aged 32 when she and her sons Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 9 months, were abducted from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, southern Israel by Hamas-led militants more than 16 months ago. The two boys have become the most recognizable victims of the October 7 terror attacks. The fourth body was that of Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 years old when he and his wife, Yocheved Lifshitz, were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Yocheved was released by Hamas on October 24, 2023. At a press conference Thursday, the Head of Israel's National Center of Forensic Medicine Dr. Chen Kugel said experts had confirmed that one of the bodies was Lifshitz, but did not comment on the other three bodies. 'We share in the deep sorrow of the Lifshitz family. Today, 503 days after the October 7 massacre, we have determined that Oded Lifshitz was murdered in captivity over a year ago,' Kugel said. Earlier Thursday, the Prime Minister's Office said that Lifshitz had been 'murdered in captivity by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization.' Israeli officials did not provide details on how they knew Lifshitz was murdered in captivity. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement denied the Israeli claims, saying Lifshitz was killed in an Israeli strike along with 'the security team assigned to protect and serve him.' It provided no details or evidence to support its claim. As in past weeks, Hamas used the handover ceremony as an opportunity for anti-Israel propaganda. But the juxtaposition of four black coffins borne by masked militants rather than living hostages led to widespread condemnation in Israel, whose television networks – unlike in past weeks – did not carry the ceremony live. Loud music blared as Red Cross workers loaded coffins into armored SUVs. Hamas claimed in November 2023 that Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas were killed in an Israeli airstrike, though never presented any evidence, and Israel never confirmed their deaths. Among the propaganda posters strung up by Hamas on Thursday was an image of a vampiric Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looming over an image of the hostages. '503 agonizing days of uncertainty have come to an end,' the Lifshitz family said in a statement, after receiving confirmation that Oded's body had been returned. 'Now we can mourn the husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather who has been missing from us since October 7. Our family's healing process will begin now and will not end until the last hostage is returned.' The caskets were first handed to the Red Cross then transferred to the Israeli military, whose soldiers draped the coffins in Israeli flags and brought them into Israel. Scores of people, many waving flags, lined the roads as a convoy carrying the four coffins traveled to Tel Aviv. Israeli President Isaac Herzog said hearts across the country 'lie in tatters,' and asked for forgiveness on behalf of the government for failing to protect those captured on October 7. 'Agony. Pain. There are no words,' he wrote in a post on X. Hamas claimed in November 2023 that the Bibas children and their mother were killed in an Israeli airstrike, but did not produce any evidence. Israel has never confirmed their deaths. The children's father, Yarden Bibas, was released by Hamas earlier this month after 484 days of captivity. He was one of the 19 Israeli hostages freed alive under the January 2025 ceasefire deal. The Israeli military had previously retrieved the bodies of multiple hostages in Gaza. At just 9 months old, Kfir was the youngest hostage kidnapped into Gaza and the youngest to have been killed. A photo of him holding a pink elephant toy and looking directly at the camera with a toothless smile has been featured in numerous campaigns and protests around the world. His brother Ariel, just 4 at the time of the attack, was often shown in a photo taken after he had a haircut, still wrapped in the hairdresser's cape. Earlier photos of the family showed Ariel, a big fan of Batman, with locks of long red hair. The picture was shown on the large screens at New York City's Times Square, printed on t-shirts worn by protesters in London, Berlin and elsewhere, and brought to the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos by Israeli President Isaac Herzog. A video of the Bibas family's abduction became one of the symbols of the brutality of the October 7 terror attack. It showed a terrified Shiri clinging tightly to her children wrapped in a blanket, with Ariel still sucking his pacifier. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) later released another video, which they said showed Shiri and the two boys alive in southern Gaza on October 7. The footage showed a person wrapped in a blanket carrying a child being ordered around by armed militants before being put in a car and driven away. The two boys and their mother were not released from Gaza during the temporary truce in late November 2023, even though the deal agreed between Israel and Hamas called for all women and children to be set free. The IDF said at that time they believed the family was being held by other militant groups, not Hamas. Later that week, Hamas said the two Bibas children and their mother were killed in an Israeli airstrike, without providing evidence. Israel never confirmed their deaths. A few days after making the claim, Hamas released a video of Yarden, the father, in which he blamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the death of his wife and two children. Yarden appeared to be in extreme distress in the video and was very likely speaking under duress. In a statement published shortly after his release this month, Yarden urged the world to 'continue doing everything possible' to ensure all hostages return home. 'Sadly, my family hasn't returned to me yet. They are still there. My light is still there, and as long as they're there, everything here is dark. Thanks to you, I was brought back - help me bring the light back to my life,' he said, referring to the Israeli public. The run up to the release of the four bodies on Thursday was marred by the Bibas family's anger at the Israeli Prime Minister's office, which they said had released the names without their approval. A source in the Prime Minister's office told CNN that while it had not published an official statement with the names of the dead hostages, IDF liaison officers had approved the publishing of the names to reporters without clearing this first with the family. The forum later released a statement at the request of the Bibas family asking the public not to 'eulogize our loved ones until there is a confirmation after final identification.' This story has been updated with additional information. Correction: The headline on this story has been corrected to reflect that Israel has not yet confirmed the Bibas family were among the four bodies released Thursday
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Argentina to observe two days national mourning for Bibas brothers
Argentina announced two days of national mourning on Thursday after the bodies of two Israeli Argentine children who had been taken hostage by Hamas were handed over by the group. Hamas delivered the bodies of four hostages on Thursday, three of which it said were members of the Bibas family — Shiri Bibas and her two young sons. While the identities of the Bibas boys, Kfir and Ariel were confirmed by Israeli forensics, they said Shiri was not among them, as the militants had claimed. Argentina's president Javier Milei will call for two-days of national mourning, his office said in an official statement. "The President's office expresses its strongest condemnation of the terrorist group Hamas, following confirmation of the murder of the children of the Israeli Argentine Bibas family," it said. According to the assessment by Israel's National Center of Forensic Medicine, the children were brutally murdered in captivity by Hamas terrorists in November 2023. "It is monstrous that such events occurred in this century, and that their deaths were motivated by a single motive: being Jewish," the statement read. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of committing a "cruel and evil" violation of the Gaza ceasefire deal by failing to return the mother. A Hamas official told AFP on Friday that it was likely the body of captive Shiri Bibas had been "mistakenly mixed" with others who were killed and buried under the rubble in Gaza. They also said the group had informed the mediators in November 2023 that it was ready to hand over the bodies of the three Bibas family members. "Mediators were informed at the time and it was also announced in a statement when the Bibas family was killed along with their captors in an Israeli air strike," the official said. The two Bibas boys had become symbols of the hostage crisis along with their mother Shiri Bibas. During their attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, that triggered the Gaza war, Hamas filmed and later broadcast footage showing the Bibas family's abduction from their home near the Gaza border. Ariel was then aged four, while Kfir was the youngest hostage at just nine months old. Their father Yarden Bibas, who was also seized during the attack, was released earlier this month but had been separated from the rest of his family. "The Argentine republic demands the immediate release of all hostages and trusts that the terrorist group will be reduced to ashes and will become nothing more than a horrible memory in world history," added the Argentine government in its statement. Milei also extended his "condolences to the family, especially to Yarden Bibas, the children's father, who after suffering the torment of being kidnapped for 484 days is now facing his worst nightmare. tc/md
New York Times
20-02-2025
- New York Times
After Endless Wait, Israelis' Worst Fears for Bibas Family Appear Confirmed
The two tiny redheaded boys had captured the hearts of Israelis and became symbols of the long and emotional campaign for the release of the scores of hostages seized during the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023. On Thursday, under gray, stormy skies, an anguished nation marked an unofficial day of mourning after Hamas handed over three black coffins that the group said bore the remains of Ariel Bibas, who was only 4 when he was taken captive to the Gaza Strip; his baby brother, Kfir Bibas, who was not even 9 months old at the time; and their mother, Shiri Bibas, who was 32. A fourth coffin bore the remains of Oded Lifshitz, an octogenarian grandfather, a peace activist and a founder of the pastoral Israeli village of Nir Oz, near the border with Gaza, where he and the Bibas family resided. All were alive when taken. At a grotesque handover ceremony in Gaza on Thursday morning, with loud music blaring in the background, the coffins were put on display on a podium bearing images from family photos that were also used in Israel for hostage posters: Ariel in a little white polo shirt; Kfir with a wide, toothless grin clutching a bright pink cuddly toy; and Shiri Bibas, smiling and radiant before the family's world fell in. The masked gunmen, though, appeared to have mixed up the children's pictures and names. By sundown on Thursday, Israel's National Center of Forensic Medicine and the Israel police had still not completed the identification process of the remains. Only Mr. Lifshitz's body had been positively identified. Yarden Bibas, Ms. Bibas's husband and the children's father, was abducted separately during the Oct. 7 assault, bleeding from a head wound. He was released alive this month as part of the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that came into effect in January. But the fate of the rest of his family has tormented Israelis, underscoring what many here view as the cruelty of Hamas. 'Dear citizens of Israel, on this day we are all united in grief that is too heavy to bear,' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday, in a somber message to an aching nation. 'Today, every home in Israel bows its head.' A month after the war set off by the Hamas attack began, the group's armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, claimed that Ms. Bibas and her two children had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. Fears grew in Israel when they were not among the other captive mothers and children released during a weeklong cease-fire that month. But the Israeli authorities had not confirmed their deaths, let alone the circumstances, saying only that there was 'grave concern' over the hostages' fates. Relatives held out hope until the very end. After Hamas announced on Tuesday that it would release the Bibases' remains, the family expressed anger over the early eulogizing in the news media of Ms. Bibas and the children before Israel had even determined that they had been killed. ' Should we receive devastating news, it must come through the proper official channels after all identification procedures are completed,' the family said in a statement on Wednesday. The Israeli government did not immediately provide details of the cause of Mr. Lifshitz's death, but said he had been 'murdered in captivity' by Islamic Jihad, a smaller Palestinian armed group that has been holding a number of hostages. Hamas turned over the bodies as part of a series of negotiated exchanges in the first phase of the cease-fire agreement. In recent weeks it has released 19 living Israeli hostages. The agreement provides for the release of 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for more than 1,500 Palestinian imprisoned in Israel during the first phase, which, barring an extension, is set to expire in early March. The Israeli government said last month that Hamas had provided a list indicating that 25 of the 33 hostages were alive and that eight had been killed. Roughly 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas-led 2023 attack and more than 250 abducted, according to Israel. Nir Oz was one of the hardest-hit communities, with about a quarter of its 400 residents either killed or taken hostage. Kfir was the youngest to be seized. The attack prompted Israel to declare war on Hamas and invade Gaza in a 15-month military campaign that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians and combatants and left much of the coastal enclave in ruins. On Thursday, groups of Israelis stood in the rain and held silent vigils along the route as coffins bearing the hostages' remains were transferred from Gaza to the National Center of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv. Eylon Keshet, Mr. Bibas's cousin, described Ariel in November 2023 as a boy who loved being the center of attention and playing with toy tractors and cars. Kfir, he said, was a 'chill' baby who was just beginning to eat solid food. The Hostage Families Forum, an organization advocating for the hostages and their families, described Ms. Bibas in a statement as 'a dedicated mother and accountant, known for her boundless kindness.' 'They weren't just names,' the forum said of the deceased hostages, adding, 'They were beloved people, with families who cherished them, with dreams and futures stolen from them.'
