Family members and forensic experts confirm that the new remains turned over by Hamas belong to the deceased Bibas.
Israel’s Bibas family has confirmed that the remains of Shiri Bibas have been returned by Hamas, a day after it announced that the Palestinian group had returned an unidentified body.
On Friday, Hamas released the remains of Bibas, whose misidentification in a handover earlier prompted anger in the Israeli government and threatened to derail the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal.
Bibas’s community, Kibbutz Nir Oz, also confirmed her identity on Saturday, just hours before the seventh captive-prisoner exchange under the ceasefire agreement.
“After the identification process at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, this morning we received the news we feared the most. Our Shiri was murdered in captivity and has now returned home to her sons, husband, sister, and all her family to rest,” the Bibas family said in a statement published on Saturday.
Hamas had agreed to hand over the bodies of Bibas and her two young sons Kfir and Ariel along with the remains of a fourth captive on Thursday under a ceasefire that has halted fighting in Gaza since last month.
Hamas said the children and their mother were killed in an Israeli air attack in November 2023.
Four bodies were delivered, but Israel later said one of the remains did not belong to the elder Bibas.
On Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to “ensure that Hamas pays the full price” for what he described as a “violation” of the ceasefire deal.
Hamas later admitted “the possibility of an error or mix-up of bodies”, which it attributed to Israeli bombing of the area that had killed several people.
Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said “unfortunate mistakes” could occur, especially as Israeli bombing had mixed the bodies of Israeli captives and Palestinians, thousands of whom were still buried under the rubble due to relentless Israeli bombardments.
“We confirm that it is not in our values or our interest to keep any bodies or not to abide by the covenants and agreements that we sign,” he said in a statement.
Ismail al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza Government Media Office, said Netanyahu “bears full responsibility for killing her and her children”.
The incident underscored the fragility of the ceasefire deal reached with United States backing and with the help of Qatari and Egyptian mediators last month.
Six living captives are due for release on Saturday in exchange for 602 Palestinians in Israeli prison, most of whom have been detained without charge or trial. Negotiations for the second phase of the ceasefire are expected to start in the coming days.
