The body of Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas has been returned to Israel after Hamas sent back the wrong one.
The Bibas family confirmed Saturday morning the human remains that were returned to Israel from the war-torn Gaza Strip on Friday have been identified as that of 32-year-old Shiri.
“Last night, our Shiri was returned home,” the family said in a statement. “Following the identification process at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, we received this morning the news we had dreaded — our Shiri was murdered in captivity and has now returned home to her sons, husband, sister, and all her family for rest.”
A spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross told ABC News on Friday night that its team “received human remains, which were then transferred to Israeli authorities.”
The Palestinian Mujahedeen Brigades, a small militant group in Gaza thought to have been holding Shiri and her two children, said late Friday that it had turned over Shiri’s remains to the Red Cross, according to The Associated Press.
This undated photo provided by Hostages Family Forum shows Shiri Bibas, who was abducted and brought to Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023.
Hostages Family Forum via AP
Shiri, her husband Yarden, 35, and their two young children Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 9 months, were abducted from their home in southern Israel and taken captive to Gaza during the Hamas-led terror attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Yarden survived the ordeal and was freed earlier this month.
Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza, handed over the remains of what it said were four deceased Israeli hostages – Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, as well as 84-year-old Oded Lifshitz — on Thursday as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement with Israel. After conducting a forensic analysis, Israeli officials positively identified three of the returned bodies as Lifshitz and the Bibas children but said the fourth was not that of their mother nor any other hostage. The analysis also found that Ariel and Kfir “were both brutally murdered by terrorists while being held hostage in Gaza, no later than November, 2023,” according to the Israel Defense Forces.
“The terrorists did not shoot the two young boys — they killed them with their bare hands,” the IDF said in a statement Friday. “Afterwards, they committed horrific acts to cover up these atrocities. This assessment is based on both forensic findings from the identification process, and intelligence that supports the findings.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to take “revenge” over the return of an incorrect body.
Hamas has repeatedly denied Israel’s allegations that it killed the Bibas family, calling the claims “nothing but pure lies” in a statement Friday. The group maintains that the mother and her two young children died in an Israeli airstrike.
ABC News’ Ellie Kaufan, Jordana Miller and Samy Zyara contributed to this report.
