Agencies JERUSALEM

After Hamas handed over another body on Friday, Israel’s army radio reported early on Saturday that it had been identified as that of Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas. According to assessments by Israeli officials issued after the body had been identified, Shiri was “brutally” murdered along with her two boys, Ariel, 4, and baby Kfir, nine months, in November 2023.

The announcement came a day after Hamas handed over remains that it said were of Bibas but turned out to be a Palestinian woman. Following  the announcement, the Bibas family put out a statement saying it had held out hope that Shiri and her young sons Ariel and Kfir would return alive after being abducted by terrorists during the Hamas attack on November 7, 2023. It had “requested certainty [about their fate] for 16 months,” it added, “and now there’s no comfort in it.”

Residents of the southern Eshkol Regional Council, where Kibbutz Nir Oz is located, lined up in the middle of the night in cold and blustery weather along the highway as the convoy passed by, waving Israeli and yellow flags in honor of the hostages. The Bibas lived there. Dozens also waited for hours outside the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv to pay their respects as the body arrived. The confirmation of Shiri’s death means that three generations of her family were murdered by terrorists — her parents Yossi and Margit Silberman were killed at Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, during the attack.

Hamas later claimed that there had been a mix-up with the bodies during an Israeli airstrike, though the military said evidence clearly showed that Kfir and Ariel were murdered by their Palestinian terrorist captors, “in cold blood” , in November 2023 when they were respectively 10-months and 4-years-old. “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,” said IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari on Friday.

Hagari added that he spoke on Thursday with the children’s father, recently released hostage Yarden Bibas, who demanded, “The entire world must know exactly how the Hamas terrorist organization operates.” Hamas said  it remained committed to implementing the current ceasefire-hostage release deal and vowed to uphold “all of our obligations,” claiming that it has no interest in holding on to any bodies of hostages.