On Thursday, Hamas has handed over the bodies of four hostages which include a nine-month-old baby and a four-year-old boy. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “It is a difficult day for Israel”. The handing over of the bodies is part of the ongoing ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
Additionally, the bodies of the four hostages arrived at the Gaza Strip in Red Cross vehicles and were handed over amid a huge rush including masked militants and onlookers. The entire site is covered with banners and flags. One of the hostage has been sent by Hamas, was Israel’s youngest hostage, whose age was just nine months.
The remains released from the Hamas are of Shiri Bibas and her two children, Ariel and Kfir and 83-year-old journalist Oded Lifshitz. 9-month-old Kfir was the youngest captive taken that day, he was a red-headed infant with a toothless smile. His brother, 4-year-old Ariel also lost his life in the war, along with their mother Shiri who was seen swaddling the two boys as militants led them into Gaza in the video shot on October 7.
Her husband, Yarden Bibas, was taken away separately and released this month followin 16 months in captivity. According to the media reports, the family of three was killed in an Israeli airstrike early in the war. Relatives in Israel have clung to hope, marking Kfir’s first and second birthdays and his brother’s fifth.
In a statement, the Bibas family said that it would wait for “identification procedures” before acknowledging that their loved ones were dead. Supporters throughout Israel have worn orange in solidarity with the family — a reference to two boys’ red hair — and a popular children’s song was written in their honor.
Oded Lifshitz was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz, along with his wife Yocheved, who was freed during a weeklong ceasefire in November 2023. Oded was a journalist who campaigned for the recognition of Palestinian rights and peace between Arabs and Jews.
Hamas-led militants abducted 251 hostages, including some 30 children, in the October 7 attack, in which they also killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. More than half the hostages, and most of the women and children, have been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israeli forces have rescued eight and have recovered dozens of bodies of people killed in the initial attack or who died in captivity.
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