A poster of Shiri Bibas who along with her husband and two children, was kidnapped by the Hamas on October 7, 2023 —AP

Agencies JERUSALEM/GAZA/UNITED NATIONS

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that Israel would make Hamas pay for failing to release the body of hostage Shiri Bibas as agreed, in the latest potential threat to the month-old Gaza ceasefire. Israeli specialists said one of four bodies handed over by Hamas on Thursday was of an unidentified woman and not Bibas.

In a statement, Netanyahu termed the handover of the wrong remains as a "cruel and malicious violation" of the ceasefire agreement. "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," Netanyahu said.

Bibas was kidnapped along with her two sons, Kfir and Ariel, and her husband, Yarden, during the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.  The remains of Ariel and Kfir Bibas were identified by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, the Israeli Defence Forces said in a statement. It said the boys were killed in captivity in November 2023.

But the additional body was not that of their mother Shiri Bibas, nor any other hostage, the military said. In a statement, Hamas said  it will “examine these allegations very seriously”. Hamas official Ismail al-Thawabteh claimed that Shiri’s body “was turned into pieces after apparently being mixed with other bodies under the rubble”. Hamas has claimed for the past year that Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, were killed in an Israeli airstrike.

“We also point out the possibility of an error or overlap regarding the bodies, which may have resulted from the occupation targeting and bombing the place where the family was with other Palestinians,” Hamas said in a statement published on Telegram. The group added it “will announce the results transparently” and they have no interest in “keeping any bodies” of the captives.

Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement, "This is a new low, an evil and cruelty with no parallel. "There are no words that can describe such an atrocity," Danon said  while demanding that the UN Security Council condemn "this heinous crime" and called for immediate return of the mother, Shiri Bibas, to her family.