Announcement comes after Hamas finally delivers body overnight, a day after her 2 young sons were determined to have been murdered in cold blood by terrorists in Strip
Kibbutz Nir Oz said early Saturday morning that resident Shiri Bibas was murdered while held captive in Gaza, after Hamas handed over her body overnight and it was brought to Israel for identification.
“With pain and deep sorrow, Kibbutz Nir Oz announces the murder of Shiri Bibas, may her memory be a blessing, who was kidnapped from her home,” said a statement from the community, which was one of most devastated by the Hamas-led terror onslaught on October 7, 2023.
“Today, after 16 unbearable months, this painful circle has finally been closed for the family and in the coming days she will return, together with her two small sons, to eternal rest in the soil of Israel,” added the Nir Oz statement.
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 Bibas but turned out to be a Palestinian woman.
“Shiri was a wonderful mother to Ariel and Kfir, a loving partner to Yarden, a dedicated sister and aunt and an incredible friend,” the family added, saying details would soon be provided on the funeral and shiva.
“Thanks to everyone for your support and love these 16 months; we wish that Shiri could be here to see it.”
The Red Cross earlier transferred the body it collected from Hamas in the Gaza Strip to Israeli authorities.
A police convoy then brought the body to the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv.
Residents of the southern Eshkol Regional Council, where 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.
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.
The Hamas terror group was supposed to return Shiri Bibas on Thursday along with her young sons Ariel and Kfir, and fellow Kibbutz Nir Oz resident Oded Lifshitz. The remains of Ariel, Kfir and Lifshitz were later positively identified, with forensic evidence determining all three were killed over a year ago.
The fourth body sent by Hamas, however, was later found to not be Shiri Bibas or any other hostage but the unnamed Palestinian woman from Gaza.
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 that he tell the world what had happened. Yarden was abducted separately by Hamas terrorists after he left the safe room of their Nir Oz home in an attempt to distract the gunmen and save his sons and wife.
“The entire world must know exactly how the Hamas terrorist organization operates. Ariel and Kfir were murdered, and then on Thursday, their bodies were returned in a cynical and cruel ceremony in Gaza. Shiri Bibas, who was meant to be returned with her children to Israel as part of the agreement, was not returned by Hamas. Hamas lied and violated the agreement,” said Hagari, referring to the ongoing hostage release and ceasefire deal.
Yarden’s sister Ofri also demanded Shiri’s return in a statement eulogizing her nephews.
Hamas had professed surprise at what it asserted was a mix-up over Shiri’s body, saying it would “examine these allegations very seriously” and announce the results of its investigation.
Hamas called on Israel to return to Gaza the body of the Palestinian woman that it handed over in place of Shiri, which the Ynet news site said Israel would return to Gaza once Bibas was identified.
The terror group then 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. It also said it would proceed with the release of six live hostages on Saturday, saying it would release hostages Tal Shoham, Omer Shem-Tov, Eliya Cohen, Omer Wenkert, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed.
According to Hamas’s past statements, the six are the last of those to be returned under the first phase of the deal who are alive.
Al-Sayed and Mengistu have been captive in Gaza for over a decade, after entering the Strip of their own accord. The others were abducted on October 7, 2023.
In return, Israel was to release 602 Palestinian security prisoners from jails on Saturday as part of the ongoing hostage release-ceasefire deal with Hamas.
Amani Sarahneh, a spokeswoman for the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, said those slated for release include 445 individuals from Gaza who were arrested after Hamas’s October 7 attack, 60 serving long sentences, 50 serving life sentences and 47 re-arrested after a 2011 exchange for captive IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
Hamas is also due to release four more bodies next week, bringing an end to the 33 hostage releases under the first phase of the deal.
The second part of the three-stage deal calls for the release of all the remaining hostages, in exchange for a permanent end to the war and the release of more Palestinian security inmates. It is believed that some 24 living hostages would be released in the second phase.
The government has given conflicting statements about the future of the agreement, sometimes saying that it intends to proceed to the second phase, but at times opening the door to a return to fighting.
Sixty-six of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas has so far released 24 hostages — 14 Israeli civilians, five soldiers and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of slain hostages Oded Lifshitz and Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas during a ceasefire that began in January. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that.
Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014. The body of another IDF soldier, also killed in 2014, was recovered from Gaza in January.
Content retrieved from: https://www.timesofisrael.com/kibbutz-nir-oz-announces-shiri-bibas-was-murdered-in-gaza-captivity/.
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