Hamas on Thursday, February 20, returned the bodies of four Israeli hostages who had been held in Gaza, marking the first time the group has handed over deceased captives since the attacks on October 7, 2023.
Among the bodies were those of Shiri Bibas, aged 32 at the time of her abduction, and her two sons, Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 9 months. The family was taken from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, southern Israel, during the October 7 assault by Hamas-led militants. The Bibas children had become symbolic figures of the attack, and their return brought a deeply emotional moment for Israel.
According to reports from CNN, the fourth body was identified as Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he and his wife, Yocheved Lifshitz, were kidnapped from the same kibbutz. Yocheved was released by Hamas on October 24, 2023, in a separate hostage exchange.
The handover took place in Khan Younis, where Hamas militants presented four black caskets on a stage set against a backdrop of propaganda slogans in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. A representative of the Red Cross signed documents on stage before the caskets were transferred to Red Cross vehicles. The scene was witnessed by a large gathering of militants and onlookers, with white screens shielding the transfer of the caskets into the vehicles.
Hamas had previously claimed in November 2023 that Shiri Bibas and her children had been killed in an Israeli airstrike, although no evidence was provided to support the claim. Israeli authorities have not confirmed the circumstances of their deaths. Their father, Yarden Bibas, was released alive earlier this month after 484 days in captivity as part of a ceasefire agreement in January 2025.
The remains were transported to the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv for further forensic examination. The return of the bodies follows earlier Israeli military operations that retrieved the remains of other hostages in Gaza.
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