According to various reports in the media, Hamas announced that this Thursday they will release the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two small babies, Ariel, age five, and Kfir, age two, back to Israel, thus crushing hopes that the three of them may still be alive.
By Rachel Avraham
According to various reports in the media, Hamas announced that this Thursday they will release the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two small babies, Ariel, age five, and Kfir, age two, back to Israel, thus crushing hopes that the three of them may still be alive. The Bibas family said it was “in turmoil” over the announcement and had not received confirmation from Israel, the Times of Israel noted.
According to the report, the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that four dead hostages would be released on Thursday, but did not name them. The only name on the phase one list whose death Israel has confirmed is Shlomo Mantzur. Israel has said it has “grave concerns” for the fate of Shiri Bibas and her young sons. Responding to the announcement, the family stressed: “Until we receive definitive confirmation, our journey is not over.”
“In the past few hours, we have been in turmoil following the Hamas spokesperson’s announcement about the planned return of our Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir this Thursday as part of the hostages’ remains release phase,” the family told the Jerusalem Post. “We ask the media and the public to respect our privacy and refrain from contacting us about this matter.”
Yarden Bibas, the husband of Shiri Bibas and the father of Ariel and Kfir, was released from captivity earlier this month together with Keith Seigal and Ofer Kalderon. A week later, he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “Bring my family back. Bring my friends back. Bring everyone home. 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.”
Meanwhile, the House Foreign Affairs Committee Majority Leader in the United States, which is presently Republican, announced, “Hamas executed a mother and her two children in cold blood. This is barbarism. Israel has every right to finish the job and eradicate these terrorists from the face of the earth.”
Enia Krivine, senior director at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies Israel program, stated following this harsh news: “Israelis are bracing for difficult days as the nation awaits the four dead hostages to be returned by the Hamas terror organization. As the Jewish state prepares to lay these four souls to rest, it is a stark reminder of who this adversary is: a terror organization that ripped women and children from their beds, raped, pillaged and murdered, and has been holding the bodies of innocent civilians as leverage, knowing that Jerusalem would make major concessions in order to retrieve their citizens and allow for a dignified burial.”
Joe Truzman, senior research analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, added: “If Israeli authorities confirm the murder of the remaining Bibas family members, it will be a profound loss for Yarden Bibas, his family, and the Jewish state. Hamas will doubtless attempt to deflect responsibility and blame Israel for their murders. The Islamist group and its allies in Gaza will be working overtime in the coming days to limit the damage to its image abroad if the news about the Bibas family is true.”
Yedioth Achronot reported that in a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Israel said that negotiations held in Cairo resulted in an understanding that on Saturday six of the live hostages included in phase one of the deal will be released and on Thursday, the bodies of four dead hostages would be handed over: “According to the agreement, four additional bodies will be handed over next week.”
The Times of Israel reported that Hamas leader in Gaza Khalil al Hayya said that among the six living hostages will be Israelis Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who have been held by Hamas since entering the Strip on their own in 2014 and 2015, respectively. According to the report, the other four — Tal Shoham, Omer Shem-Tov, Omer Wenkert, and Eliya Cohen — were kidnapped during the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, which many in Israel claim constituted kinocide, a new war crime begging for recognition in the international legal community.
