<img src='https://news.cgtn.com/news/2025-02-22/Hamas-releases-new-hostage-body-after-misidentification-of-Shiri-Bibas-1Bc6QoRDpQI/img/9b0a93e2bd0a48b88228d16e8e17e9f9/9b0a93e2bd0a48b88228d16e8e17e9f9.png' alt='Members of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, hand over the bodies of the Bibas family and Oded Lifshitz to Red Cross teams as part of a prisoner exchange agreement between Hamas and Israel in the Khan Yunis Governorate, southern Gaza Strip, February 20, 2025. /CFP'
Hamas released a body on Friday that it claimed to be that of Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas, whose misidentification in a handover this week threatened to derail the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal.
Israeli medical authorities said forensic teams were preparing to examine the body, which Hamas transferred via the Red Cross, and confirm its identity.
The Palestinian militant group had agreed to hand over the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Kfir and Ariel, along with the remains of a fourth hostage on Thursday under the ceasefire that has halted fighting in Gaza since last month.
Four bodies were delivered, and the identities of the Bibas boys and the other hostage, Oded Lifshitz, were confirmed.
But Israeli specialists said the fourth body was that of an unidentified woman and not Shiri Bibas, who was kidnapped along with her sons and her husband, Yarden, during the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said “unfortunate mistakes” could occur, especially as Israeli bombing had mixed the bodies of Israeli hostages and Palestinians, thousands of whom were still buried in the rubble.
“We confirm that it is not in our values or our interest to keep any bodies or not to abide by the covenants and agreements that we sign,” he said in a statement.
The failure to hand over the correct body and the public handover of the four coffins on Thursday led to tension in Israel, with Netanyahu issuing a threat of retaliation.
“We will act with determination to bring Shiri home along with all our hostages – both living and dead – and ensure Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and evil violation of the agreement,” he said in a video statement.
Hamas said in November 2023 that the children and their mother had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Gaza government media office, said Netanyahu “bears full responsibility for killing her and her children.”
But the Israeli military said intelligence assessments and forensic analysis of the bodies of the Bibas children indicated that they were deliberately killed by their captors. Chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the boys were killed by the militants “with their bare hands,” but gave no details.
The U.N. Human Rights Office said it had no information of its own on the hostage deaths and called for an effective investigation into the causes.
“The return of the remains of the deceased is a basic humanitarian goal,” the office said.
The incident underscored the fragility of the ceasefire agreement reached with U.S. backing and with the help of Qatari and Egyptian mediators last month.