꧑Hamas handed over the bodies of four Israeli hostages, including a mother and her two young children on Thursday.
✨The hostages—Shiri Bibas, her two children Ariel and Kfir, and 83-year-old Oded Lifshitz—were abducted during the brutal October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which left more than 1,200 people dead and saw 251 individuals taken hostage, including several children.
ꦆThe Israeli military confirmed the receiving of the remains of four captives after Hamas handed them over to the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip.
🍸The release of the remains took place in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas militants displayed four black coffins draped in banners, including one showing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a vampire. These coffins were then transferred to Red Cross vehicles, which transported the bodies for formal identification in Israel.
🅷Israeli authorities will now use DNA testing, a process expected to take up to two days, before confirming the identities of the victims and notifying their families.
💯Shiri Bibabs’s son Kfir was just 9 months old when he was taken hostage and was the youngest hostage. His brother Ariel was 4. Video shot that day showed a terrified Shiri swaddling the two boys as militants led them into Gaza. Her husband, Yarden Bibas, was taken separately and released this month after 16 months in captivity.
꧂Oded Lifshitz, an 83-year-old former journalist, was also among the abductees. He had campaigned for Palestinian rights and the possibility of peace between Arabs and Jews. Lifshitz’s wife, Yocheved, was released during a ceasefire in November 2023, but Oded’s fate remained uncertain until now.
🌜The Bibas family said in a statement Wednesday that it would wait for “identification procedures” before acknowledging that their loved ones were dead.
🥂Thousands gathered in Gaza for the event, including armed Hamas fighters, as the remains were handed over to the International Red Cross. The Israeli military has confirmed receiving the coffins, although official identification processes will take time. Supporters throughout Israel have worn orange in solidarity with the family — a reference to two boys' red hair — and a popular children's song was written in their honour.
Fate of ceasefire remains uncertain
🌌With the release of these remains, the path toward a lasting ceasefire remains uncertain. While Hamas is expected to release six more living hostages on Saturday and four more bodies next week as part of a larger deal, talks for the second phase of the ceasefire remain in their early stages. That will leave the militants with some 60 hostages, all men, around half of whom are believed to be dead.
🔥Hamas has said it won’t release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal. Meanwhile, Israeli PM Netanyahu, who has the full backing of the Trump administration, says he is committed to destroying Hamas’ military and governing capacities and returning all the hostages, goals widely seen as mutually exclusive.
💞Trump has proposed to remove some 2 million Palestinians from Gaza so the US can own and rebuild it. This proposal has been welcomed by Netanyahu but universally rejected by Palestinians and Arab countries. Hence, Hamas could be reluctant to free more hostages if it believes the war will resume with the goal of annihilating the group or forcibly transferring Gaza’s population.
💜The first phase of the ceasefire is set to end in early March, and questions loom over whether it will be extended or whether hostilities will resume.
