Hamas handed coffins that stated that the bodies of four Israeli hostages contain on Thursday, including those of the Bibas family that became symbols of the test that Israel has grabbed since the Gaza war started.
The transmission of the bodies is the first of Hamas since the attack of 7 October 2023 on Israel caused war and takes place under a fragile cessation -the Fires in which living hostages are exchanged for Palestinians who are kept in Israeli prisons.
The ceremony to return the bodies of Shiri Bibas, her two young boys – KFIR and Ariel -, and a fourth prisoner, Oded Lifshitz, 83, took place at the time of his conquest, at a former cemetery in the southern Gaza – City of Khan Yunis.
Prior to the transfer, Hamas showed four black coffins on a stage that was founded on the sandy piece of land. A banner behind them depicted the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a blood -stained vampire. An armed militant stood in the neighborhood.
Each box wore a small photo of each of the dead. White mock-up missiles placed near the coffins wore the inscription: “They were killed by American bombs.”
A militant, his face wrapped in a red and white Keffiyeh -scarf, was on stage to complete documents with a Red Cross official before the coffins were loaded into Red Cross vehicles, showed AFPTV images.
The Israeli army later said that “the bodies of the hostages were transferred” and the Shin Bet Internal Security Agency in Gaza.
Hundreds of people gathered to witness the ceremony. A fence was built to keep spectators away from the immediate area where the transfer to the Red Cross would take place.
Armed men in military fatigue and wearing Hamas head tires were omnipresent and were carefully choreographed near the stage for the ceremony as for earlier transfers of hostages during the truce.
Images of the kidnapping of the family, filmed and broadcast by Hamas during their attack, showed the mother and her sons Ariel, then four and Kfir, only nine months old, taken from their house near the border with Gaza.
Yarden Bibas, the father of the boys and the husband of Shiri, was abducted separately that day and released on 1 February from the Gaza Strip in an earlier hostage-prisoner exchange.
‘Day of grief’
The repatriation of their body is part of the first six-week phase of a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which came into effect on January 19 after more than 15 months of fighting in Gaza.
Netanyahu said that Thursday “would be a very difficult day for the state of Israel – a heartbreaking day, a day of grief”.
Under the first phase of the cease-fire, 19 Israeli hostages have so far been released by militants in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners in a series of Red Cross-mediated Swaps.
Of the remaining 14 Gaza hostelers who are eligible for release under phase one, Israel says that eight are dead.
The family members of the Bibas became national symbols of the despair that the nation has grabbed since the Hamas Attack and Gystage recordings.
Although their deaths are largely accepted as a fact abroad after Hamas said that an Israeli air raid killed them early in the war, Israel has never confirmed the claim and many have not remained convinced – including the Bibas family.
Late on Wednesday, the Israeli campaign group The Highnesses and Missing Families Forum said that it was informed about the “heartbreaking” news about the death of the three Biba’s family members.
The Bibas family said it would wait for a confirmation.
“If we receive devastating news, it must be due to the correct official channels after all identification procedures have been completed,” said it in a statement at the end of Wednesday.
The National Forensic Medicine Institute in Tel Aviv has mobilized 10 doctors to speed up the identification process, the public broadcaster reported.
Some exchange
Israel and Hamas announced a deal earlier this week for the return of the remains of eight hostages in two groups this week and following, as well as the release of the last six living Israeli prisoners on Saturday.
The forum of the hostages called the six as Eliya Cohen, Tal Shaham, Omer Shem TOV, Omer Werkt, Hisham Al-Sayed and Avera Mengistu.
It has held the chattering in Gaza despite accusations of violations on both sides. It has also been under pressure from the widely convicted plan of US President Donald Trump to take control of Gaza and to move the population of more than two million Palestinians.
The Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Tuesday that conversations would start “this week” in the second phase of the truce, which is expected to explain a more permanent end to the war.
Senior Hamas officer Taher al-Nunu told AFP on Wednesday that Hamas was ready to free all remaining hostages in Gaza in a single exchange during phase two.
He did not clarify how many hostages were currently held by Hamas or other militant groups.
Hamas and his allies took 251 people hostage during their attack. Prior to Thursday’s transfer, there were 70 hostages in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli army says it is dead.
That attack resulted in the death of 1,211 people, usually citizens, according to a AFP counting of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliation campaign killed at least 48,297 people in Gaza, the majority of them citizens, according to figures from the Health Minister in the territory run by Hamas that the United Nations are reliable.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)