The bodies of three Israeli hostages and the body of a fourth, unidentified woman, were returned to Israel on Thursday in the latest release under a ceasefire between Israel and the militant group Hamas.
Hundreds of people gathered in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis where Hamas handed over four black coffins to the Red Cross, which took them away in a convoy and delivered them to the Israeli military.
An Israeli procession passed through areas where people gathered on the side of the road holding Israeli flags. The bodies arrived several hours later at the National Center of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv to confirm their identities.
Those released Thursday included the youngest captives – infant Kfir Bibas, who was 9 months old when he was kidnapped, and his 4-year-old brother, Ariel Bibas.
The body of their mother, Shiri Bibas, was also supposed to be released. But on Friday, local time, the Israeli military said the female body was not Shiri Bibas. The body does not belong to any other hostage and remains unidentified, the military said.
The Israeli military accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire agreement.
"This is a violation of utmost severity by the Hamas terrorist organization, which is obliged under the agreement to return four deceased hostages," the military said in a statement.
Israel’s United Nations representative Danny Danon also condemned Hamas for returning an unidentified body.
"Hamas returned an unidentified body, as if it were a worthless shipment. This is a new low, an evil and cruelty with no parallel," Danon said in a statement.
The Bibas family was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. Video of the abduction showed Shiri Bibas swaddling the boys in a blanket and being whisked away by armed men.
Hamas has said the boys and their mother were killed in an Israeli airstrike in November 2023. Their father, Yarden Bibas, was kidnapped separately and returned alive earlier this month.
The body of fellow Nir Oz resident Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was abducted from his home, was also released on Thursdsay.
"We received with deep sorrow the official and bitter news confirming the identification of our beloved Oded's body," the Lifshitz family said in a statement released by a group representing family members of those taken hostage on Oct. 7, 2023.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on X that the hearts of the entire nation “lie in tatters.”
“On behalf of the State of Israel, I bow my head and ask for forgiveness,” Herzog said. “Forgiveness for not protecting you on that terrible day. Forgiveness for not bringing you home safely.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday would be “a day of grief” for his nation.
Hundreds of people gathered in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis where Hamas handed over four black coffins to the Red Cross, which took them away in a convoy and delivered them to the Israeli military.
An Israeli procession passed through areas where people gathered on the side of the road holding Israeli flags. The bodies arrived several hours later at the National Center of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv to confirm their identities.
Before transferring the four coffins to the Red Cross, Hamas had them displayed on a stage at the handover site along with flags and banners.
One of the banners accused Netanyahu of being a war criminal and said Israeli airstrikes killed the hostages.
The United Nations criticized what it called the "abhorrent and cruel" staging of the event, with U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk saying Thursday the remains need to be respected.
"Under international law, any handover of the remains of deceased must comply with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, ensuring respect for the dignity of the deceased and their families," Türk said in a statement.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has facilitated the hostage and prisoner releases so far, also had called for handovers of bodies "to be done privately out of utmost respect for the deceased and those left grieving."
On Saturday, six living hostages are set to be released in exchange for hundreds more Palestinians detained by Israeli forces in Gaza during the war.
Israel and Hamas are in the process of implementing the first phase of a ceasefire that began on Jan. 19. Talks on the second phase are scheduled to begin this week, according to Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar.
A Hamas spokesperson on Thursday accused Netanyahu of "procrastinating regarding the second phrase," saying the group was "ready to engage."
A Hamas official told Agence France-Presse that the remaining hostages may be released together during the next phase of the truce.
"We have informed the mediators that Hamas is ready to release all hostages in one batch during the second phase of the agreement, rather than in stages as in the current first phase," senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told the news agency.
Hamas is believed to be holding 66 more captives, about half of them living.
The group has said it will release the remaining hostages only in exchange for a lasting halt to the fighting and a full Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israel has not backed off its goal, supported by the United States, of eradicating any military or governing role for Hamas in Gaza.
Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group, killed about 1,200 people in the October 2023 attack and took about 250 as hostages. More than half of the captives have been released in ceasefire agreements and other deals, while eight were rescued in military operations.
Israel's air and ground war killed more than 48,200 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many were combatants. The Israeli military says the death toll includes 17,000 militants. The offensive destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced most of its population of 2.3 million.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
