2 days ago
20
Hamas has handed over the bodies of Israeli infant Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother, Ariel, on Thursday, marking the first return of deceased hostages since the October 7, 2023, attack.
The two youngest captives taken by Hamas had become potent symbols of the trauma inflicted that day.
Red Cross vehicles transported four black coffins from the handover site in Gaza, each adorned with a small picture of the hostages. Armed Hamas militants, clad in black and camouflage uniforms, stood guard as the transfer took place.
United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk condemned the way the bodies were displayed in Gaza, calling it “abhorrent and cruel.”
“Under international law, any handover of the remains of the deceased must comply with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, ensuring respect for the dignity of the deceased and their families,” Turk said in a statement.
After the transfer, the coffins were scanned for explosives before being transported to Israel, according to the Israeli military. Israelis lined the roads near the Gaza border in the rain to pay their respects as the convoy passed.
“We stand here together, with a broken heart. The sky is also crying with us, and we pray to see better days,” said a woman named Efrat.
In Tel Aviv, crowds gathered at Hostages Square outside Israel’s defense headquarters, some weeping.
“Agony. Pain. There are no words. Our hearts—the hearts of an entire nation—lie in tatters,” said Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Israel would be “united in unbearable grief” and pledged to “eliminate” Hamas.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, militants stood beside a poster depicting a man standing over coffins draped in Israeli flags.
Instead of legs, his body had tree roots extending into the ground, symbolising Palestinian claims to the land. The poster read: “The Return of the War = The Return of Your Prisoners in Coffins.”
The Bibas family—mother Shiri, father Yarden, and their two sons—were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz during the October 7 assault, in which Hamas-led attackers overran multiple Israeli communities.
In November, Hamas claimed that Shiri and the two boys had been killed in an Israeli airstrike, but Israeli authorities never confirmed their deaths.
“Shiri and the kids became a symbol,” said Yiftach Cohen, a resident of Nir Oz, which lost nearly a quarter of its population to killings or kidnappings during the attack.
Yarden Bibas was returned earlier this month in a prisoner exchange.
The handover also included the body of Oded Lifschitz, 83, a former journalist and one of the hostages taken from Nir Oz. His wife, Yocheved, 85 at the time, was kidnapped alongside him but was released two weeks later.
Lifschitz had been a vocal critic of Netanyahu’s policies, including his rejection of a two-state solution and the 2011 prisoner swap that freed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar—one of the masterminds behind the October 7 attack—in exchange for a single Israeli soldier.
In a statement, Lifschitz’s family confirmed they had been notified of his formal identification.
“Our family’s healing process will begin now and will not end until the last hostage is returned,” they said.
Thursday’s handover of bodies marked the first such return under the Gaza ceasefire agreement, brokered with the support of the United States, Qatar, and Egypt.
It came ahead of the expected release of six living hostages on Saturday, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian detainees, primarily women and minors, held by Israel.
Negotiations for a second phase of hostage releases are set to begin in the coming days. The discussions are expected to focus on securing the return of approximately 60 remaining hostages, fewer than half of whom are believed to be alive.
In return, Hamas is demanding a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, potentially paving the way for an end to the war.
The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of about 1,200 Israelis, with 251 individuals taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
In response, Israel launched a military campaign that has killed approximately 48,000 people in Gaza, according to Palestinian health authorities, and has left much of the territory in ruins.
Boluwatife Enome
Follow us on:
English (US) ·