Family of Shiri Bibas say released body is hers after horror mix up

The family of Shiri Bibas has said a body released on Friday by Hamas is hers, following a horror mix-up.

Hamas handed over remains on Thursday, claiming they were of hostage Shirir Bibas, however forensic findings showed they were of an unidentified woman.

Other remains returned to Israel were identified as Shiri Bibas’s two sons – Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 9 months. They were said to have been killed in November 2023.

The body of Israeli hostage Oded Lifschitz, 84, was also returned on Thursday,

This comes as another hostage release is currently taking place in Gaza, with six male Israelis set to be freed.

At time of reporting, Tal Shoam, 40, abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri and Avera Mengistu, taken hostage in 2014, have been handed over to Israel.

Eliya Cohen, 27, Omer Shem Tov, 22, and Omer Wenkert, 23, all abducted on October 7, 2023, are set to be released today as well, along with Hisham al-Sayed, a Bedouin Arab Israeli who has been held in Gaza since 2015.

In a statement, the Bibas family said: “Our Shiri was murdered in captivity and has now returned home. For 16 months, we sought certainty, and now that we have it, there is no comfort in it, but we hope for the beginning of a closure.”

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Relatives also accused Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu of “abandoning” the hostages, saying there would be “no forgiveness” for the failures on October 7 and the failure to bring the family home.

“We did not receive an apology from you at this painful moment,” said Ofri Bibas, the aunt of Kfir and Ariel.

Hamas claimed the mother and two children were killed in an Israeli airstrike, however, Israel has said forensic findings showed the two children were killed with “bare hands”.

IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said the family had been deliberately murdered “in cold blood” with “bare hands” and that terrorists then “committed horrific acts to cover up these atrocities”.

He said evidence of the atrocities had been shared with “partners around the world so they can verify it.”

Shiri, 32, Ariel and Kfir Bibas were kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023.

Husband and father Yarden Bibas, 34, was abducted separately from his family, and was held in Gaza for almost a year and a half until being released alive on February 1, 2025.

Some 1,200 people – mostly civilians – were killed in the October 7 attacks and 251 were taken hostage when terrorist group Hamas infiltrated Israel in 2023.

In response, Israel launched a military campaign against Hamas, which has killed around 48,319 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters.