Cruel and Malicious Agreement Violation

"We will work with determination to bring Shiri home together with all our hostages -- both living and dead -- and ensure that Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and malicious violation of the agreement."

"The sacred memory of Oded Lifshitz and Ariel and Kfir Bibas will be forever enshrined in the heart of the nation."

"May God avenge their blood. And so we will avenge."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 

"[We have] no interest in retaining any bodies."

"[We have] demonstrated full compliance with the agreement [in recent days and remain] committed to all its terms."

"We reject Netanyahu's threats."

Hamas statement 

Yarden, Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas 

 

The body of Oded Lifshitz, 83 when he was abducted on October 7, 2023, was returned to Israel in a casket. This was a man who lived in a kibbutz on the border of Southern Israel with Gaza. He was an exponent of peace between the two neighbours. And he arranged to pick up and deliver Gazans, including Palestinian children to  hospitals in Israel for medical treatment. He and those others like him who lived in the border kibbutzes believed in peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

 

Palestinian farm workers found regular employment in the Israeli kibbutzes, enabling them to earn a wage far superior than anything they could find in employment-bare Gaza. These Palestinian farm workers became familiar with the Israelis among whom they worked. Comfortable enough that they all ate their meals communally in the kibbutz's dining halls. And it was from among these trusted Palestinian farm workers that Hamas operatives planning the October 7 invasion of the kibbutzim were given hand-drawn maps of the kibbutzes, including which of the structures held members of each kibbutz's security team.

 

Some of the Palestinian civilians accompanying the  terrorist groups during the invasion were familiar to the terrorized Israelis who were being raped, dismembered and slaughtered. Oded Lifshitz was one of them. Of the four caskets that were delivered in a handover from Hamas to the Red Cross, then to waiting Israeli IDF members, two were tiny affairs, holding the bodies of a four-year-old child and a 10-month-old infant, sibling brothers, Kfir and Ariel Bibas.

 

 

Their mother Shiri Bibas was purportedly in one of the two large adult-sized caskets. All were taken to the forensics unit for verification of identity. It was quickly evident that it was not Shiri Bibas in the casket meant to hold her, but the body of an unknown woman from Gaza. Devastating news for her waiting family members, already wholly traumatized by their experiences of the past fifteen months, and particularly so for her husband Yarden, father of their two babies.

 

Hamas responded to the revelation and the fury of Israel by demurring over malicious intention; no, never would they be so inhumanely sadistic, and they would "conduct a thorough review" of the information with respect to the body. Moreover, they demanded the immediate return of the body in Shiri's casket, that of a Palestinian woman. What occurred, they said was an error in remains resulting from Israeli bombing of the area where the Israeli hostages had been held. The following day another casket was  delivered, this time confirmed that it held the body of Shiri Bibas.

 

IDF officers salute a casket containing the body of slain hostage Shiri Silberman Bibas, late on February 21, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

Hamas had informed Israeli authorities a year ago that the Bibas family, mother and two infants were killed in an Israeli bombing raid into Gaza. They set up a video featuring Yarden Bibas, held separately from  his family, taunting him with the information that his wife and children were dead. No one in Israel believed they were dead, and Yarden, released from captivity two weeks earlier, held steadfast to the idea that they were alive and would be released to him. 

"We identified Shiri Bibas two days after we identified her children. Our examination found no evidence of injuries caused by bombing."

"[The medical staff at Abu Kabir had worked] professionally and carefully to provide clear answers to the Lifshitz and Bibas-Silberman families [since receiving the bodies, first on Thursday and then on Friday night]."

"It’s a difficult day for the families, for us, the medical staff, and for the entire nation of Israel."

Dr. Chen Kugel, director of the National Institute of Forensic Medicine (Abu Kabir) 

On Friday, Israeli Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari cleared  up the Hamas contention that the Bibas babies had been killed along with their mother in an Israeli air strike. Dr. Kugel, the pathologist had already stated that mother Shiri had not died of wounds consistent with an air strike. Then came the statement from Rear Admiral Hagari: "The terrorists did not shoot the two young boys — they killed them with their bare hands. Afterward, they committed horrific acts to cover up these atrocities." 

Shiri Bibas is led into Gaza by her Palestinian abductors, carrying Kfir and Ariel in her arms