A physique that Hamas turned over to the Purple Cross on Friday has been confirmed as that of Shiri Bibas, an Israeli mom whose seize together with her two younger sons throughout the Oct. 7, 2023, assault grew to become an emblem of the nation’s anguish.
Early Saturday, a bunch representing hostages and their households, Hostage Households Discussion board, introduced that Israeli forensic specialists had positively recognized the lady as Ms. Bibas. Nir Oz, the kibbutz the place the Bibas household had lived, additionally shared the information.
Ms. Bibas’s stays have been initially believed to have been repatriated to Israel on Thursday with these of her two kids, as a part of a negotiated change for Palestinian prisoners. With a DNA take a look at, Israeli officers then decided the physique was that of one other individual and never Ms. Bibas’s. The invention stirred anguish in Israel and put stress on Hamas to provide the right stays.
Saturday’s bulletins have been the newest growth in a collection of crises which have made up the primary part of a cease-fire with Hamas. Thus far, 19 residing Israeli hostages have been traded for tons of of Palestinian prisoners.
Regardless of recriminations from either side, the cease-fire has held for a month. And Hamas’s speedy effort to seek out and return the physique of Ms. Bibas was an indication that it didn’t need to bear duty for endangering the settlement forward of the following switch, deliberate for Saturday.
On Thursday, Hamas stated it had handed over the stays of 4 hostages: Ms. Bibas, who on the time of her seize was 32; her two kids, Ariel, then 4, and Kfir Bibas, then 9 months; and Oded Lifshitz, 83. The handoff was staged in entrance of crowds in Khan Younis, and every casket bore a photograph of a hostage.
A forensic institute in Tel Aviv confirmed the identities of the stays of Ariel, Kfir and Mr. Lifshitz.
However early on Friday, Israel stated that one of many our bodies Hamas handed over was not that of Ms. Bibas. The Israeli navy referred to as the discovering a “violation of the utmost severity” of the cease-fire. In a press release, Hamas acknowledged the potential of a mistake or a “mixing up of corpses.” One other physique, believed to be Ms. Bibas’s, was handed over to the Purple Cross on Friday night.
On Saturday morning, the forensic institute confirmed the identification of that physique as Ms. Bibas’s, in accordance with the Hostage Households Discussion board.
“Regardless of our fears about their destiny, we continued to hope that we might get to embrace them, and now we’re in ache and heartbroken,” the Bibas household wrote in a press release disseminated by the hostage discussion board. “For 16 months we sought certainty, and now that it’s right here, it brings no consolation, although we hope it marks the start of closure.”
The household referred to as for the fast return of the remaining hostages nonetheless in captivity. “There isn’t any extra essential aim. There may be no rehabilitation with out them,” the household wrote.
Isabel Kershner contributed reporting.
