Hamas has returned Shiri Bibas’s remains, according to Israel’s Bibas family, one day after it was revealed that the Palestinian organization had returned an unidentified body.
The Israeli government was angered by the misidentification of Bibas in a handover on Friday and threatened to thwart the fragile Gaza ceasefire agreement.
Bibas’s community, Kibbutz Nir Oz, also confirmed her identity on Saturday, just hours before the seventh captive-prisoner exchange under the ceasefire agreement.
“We received the news we feared the most this morning following the Institute of Forensic Medicine’s identification process.” Our Shiri was murdered in captivity and has now returned home to her sons, husband, sister, and all her family to rest”, the Bibas family said in a statement published on Saturday.
Under a ceasefire that has put an end to fighting in Gaza  since last month, Hamas had agreed to hand over the bodies of Bibas, her two young sons, Kfir and Ariel, as well as the remains of a fourth captive on Thursday.
Hamas claimed that an Israeli airstrike in November 2023 claimed the lives of the children and their mother.
Israel later claimed that one of the bodies did not belong to the older Bibas, despite the fact that there were four bodies delivered.
On Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to “ensure that Hamas pays the full price” for what he described as a “violation” of the ceasefire deal.
Hamas later acknowledged that there might have been a “mix-up of bodies” as a result of Israeli bombings in the area that had resulted in several fatalities.
Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said “unfortunate mistakes” could occur, especially as Israeli bombing had mixed the bodies of Israeli captives and Palestinians, thousands of whom were still buried under the rubble due to relentless Israeli bombardments.
We make it clear in a statement that it is against our values or our duty to keep any bodies or to abide by the agreements and covenants we ratify.
Ismail al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza Government Media Office, said Netanyahu “bears full responsibility for killing her and her children”.
The incident highlighted how fragile the ceasefire agreement, which was reached last month with American support and the assistance of Qatari and Egyptian mediators, is.
602 Palestinians in Israel’s prison, the majority of whom have not been charged or tried before being tried, are set for release on Saturday in exchange for six living prisoners. In the upcoming days, negotiations for the second phase of the ceasefire are anticipated to begin.
Source: Aljazeera
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