Hamas returns 4 bodies, including 2 young children taken hostages but not their mother, says Israel

Khan Younis, Gaza Strip – Hamas posted four bodies on Thursday, for which Israeli officials said that they had included two young children who had long been afraid of dead and came to embody the nation agony after 7. October 2023. Hamas attack on Israel. It was said that their mother was returned with them, but the Israeli forces later said that the remains of another person were released instead.

It was said that the remains were posthumous Shiri Bibas and her two childrenAriel and Kfir, as well as Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 years old when he abducted. Kfir, who was 9 months old when they took him, was the youngest of all prisoners. Hamas said all four were killed with their guards at Israeli air attacks.

In a post on social networks early Friday morning, Israeli defense forces said the remains of Ariel and Kfir were returned, but not mother’s mother. “During the identification procedure, it was found that the additionally received body was not the one of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other hostages. This is an anonymous, unidentified body,” said IDF.

The militants showed four black suitcases surrounded by banners, including Velika depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a vampire, while the Red Cross vehicles arrived at the scene in the Gaza bar.

The fighters then wore suitcases to the Red Cross vehicle, where they were covered with white leaves with red vests before putting them inside. Each suitcase had a picture fixed on the front that wore a picture of the killed soil whose remains were allegedly inside.

The Red Cross Convac headed back to Israel, where the authorities carried out a formal identification procedure on the remains used by DNA, which was expected to last up to two days. The Lifshitz family’s statement, however, shared by the family family forum, said that they “received a deep sadness of official and bitter news that confirmed the identification of our beloved Odee body.”

“We hoped and prayed so much for a different outcome. We can now mourn our husband, father, grandfather and great -grandfather we miss from October 7,” said the family, adding that their “healing process will start now and will not end until the last hostage returns. “

Thousands of people, including a large number of masked and armed fighters from Hamas and other fractions, gathered at the place of handover on the outskirts of the southern city of Gaza Khan Younis.

“Each home in Israel today is pledged to the head. Let’s give our heads a big loss of our four hostages,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “Four coffins of our loved ones bind us more than ever to promise, to swore that what happened on October 7 will never happen again.”

Israeli channels did not broadcast handover. In Tel Aviv Square, where the Israelis gathered to watch the Living Tatec edition, a large screen showed a compilation of the photos and videos of Lifshitz and the Bibas family, including Chunging Baby Kfir and a family dressed in Batman costumes. Yarden Bibas, a child’s father, was not with his family on October 7, but took it separately. He was Published earlier this month After 16 months in captivity.

Dozens of Kibbutz Nir Oz inhabitants, four of which were abducted on Thursday, gathered to wave to the Israeli flags outside their temporary home north of the devastated kibbut.

Israelites have celebrated the return of 24 live hostages in recent weeks A powerful ceremony He paused during the 15 months of war. However, the handover will provide a gloomy reminder of those who killed captivity on Thursday, while the conversations that led to the receipt that withdrawn for more than a year.

This could also provide an incentive for negotiations on the second phase of a tribute that can barely start. The first phase should end in early March.

Kfir Bibas was only 9 months old, a red -haired child with a toothless smile, when militants were falling into the family home on October 7, 2023 .. while the militants led them to Gaza.

The cousins ​​in Israel were hoped, celebrating Kfir’s first and second birthday and brother Peti. The Bibas family on Wednesday stated that she would wait for “identification procedures” before admitting that their loved ones were dead.

The supporters throughout Israel wore an orange in solidarity with family – a reference to the red hair of two boys – a popular children’s song was written in their honor.

Like the Bibas family, Odeed Lifshitz was abducted by Kibbutz Nir Oz, along with his wife Yocheved, who was released during the weekly truck in November 2023. Oded was a journalist who advocated the recognition of Palestinian rights and peace between the Arabs and Jews.

The Hamas militants abducted 251 hostages, including about 30 children, in a terrorist attack on October 7, in which they killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

More than half of the hostages, and most women and children were released in interruption agreements or other contracts. Israeli forces saved eight and recovered dozens of people killed in an initial attack or who died in captivity.

Hamas will release six living hostages on Saturday in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, and says he will release four more bodies next week, completing the first phase of the fire. This will leave militants with about 60 hostages, and all men, who are believed to be dead.

Hamas said he would not let the remaining prisoners without a permanent truce and full of Israeli withdrawal. Netanyahu, with complete support of Trump’s administration, says that it is dedicated to destroying Hamas’ military and managing capacity and returning all hostages, goals that are widely considered to be exclusive.

Mr. Trump’s proposal to remove about two million Palestinians from Gaza so that he can now own it and renew it, which Netanyahu welcomed, but universally rejected by the Palestinians and Arab countries, he threw an income on further doubt.

Hamas could hesitate to release more hostages if he believes the war will continue to destroy the group or forcibly transmit the population of gauze.

The Israeli military offensive has killed over 48,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza Hamas, who does not distinguish civilians and fighters in her records. Israel says he killed over 17,000 fighters without giving evidence.

The offensive destroyed the huge areas of Gaza, reducing the entire neighborhood in the fields of ruins and bombed buildings. In its height, the war fought 90% of the Gaza population. Many have returned to their homes to find anything left and no way of renewing.