Jerusalem:
Israel said on Friday that one of the four bodies returned from Gaza, not a hostage, is Shiri Bibas, as claimed by Hamas, who accused Palestinian ‘terrorists’ of killing her two young boys.
The Israeli army said it had identified the remains of Ariel and Kfir, the two sons of Shiri that were transferred by the militant group as part of the hostage-prisoner swap.
“During the diagnostic process it was established that the other handed body does not belong from Shiri Bibas and does not match other abducted individuals,” said military spokesperson Avichay Adraee on Telegram.
“We require Hamas Shiri Bibas to return together with all the kidnapped people,” he added.
Adraee said that Israel had concluded that her two sons had been killed by Palestinian ‘terrorists’ in Gaza, contrary to the claim of Hamas that they were killed early in the war in an Israeli air raid.
“According to the assessment of the relevant authorities and based on available intelligence and diagnostic indicators, Ariel and KFIR biba’s were brutally killed by Palestinian terrorists in November 2023,” said Adraee.
On Thursday, Hamas handed over the remains of Shiri, KFIR and Ariel Bibas, who had started to symbolize the testing of the hostages since their kidnapping on October 7, 2023 for many Israelis.
Hamas also handed over the body of a fourth hostage, Oded Lifshitz, an experienced journalist and old defender of Palestinian rights.
It was the first transmission of Israeli bodies under the fragile ceases -the Fires in the Gaza Strip.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)