Bibas mother confirmed dead as Gaza hostage-prisoner swap go ahead

Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas’s community confirmed her death Saturday after new remains were returned from Gaza, as the seventh hostage-prisoner exchange under a fragile Gaza ceasefire was set to go ahead.

Bibas and her two young sons, whose bodies were returned by Hamas to Israel on Thursday, had become symbols of the ordeal suffered by Israeli hostages since the Gaza war began.

Hamas had said the mother’s remains were among those returned Thursday, but Israeli analysis concluded they were not in fact hers, sparking an outpouring of grief and anger.

“Kibbutz Nir Oz announces with deep pain and sorrow the murder of Shiri Bibas, of blessed memory, who was abducted from her home on October 7 and killed in captivity in Gaza,” her community said in a statement, adding “she will be laid to rest in the land of Israel alongside her two young sons”.

The International Committee of the Red Cross had earlier confirmed the transfer of more human remains to Israel “at the request of both parties” but did not say whose they were.

On Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “ensure that Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and evil violation of the agreement” and accused the Palestinian militant group of murdering young Ariel and Kfir Bibas.

The group admitted “the possibility of an error or mix-up of bodies”, which it attributed to Israeli bombing of the area.

Hamas also affirmed its “full commitment” to the ongoing ceasefire deal, which has so far seen 19 living Israeli hostages freed from Gaza in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails.

The group’s armed wing confirmed it would release six living Israelis Saturday in the seventh swap since the ceasefire began.

They are the last living hostages eligible for release under the truce deal’s first phase, which is due to expire in early March. Hamas has also promised to hand over four more bodies next week.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group said Friday that Israel would free 602 inmates on Saturday as part of the exchange.

A spokeswoman for the NGO told AFP that 445 were Gazans arrested after the war began, while 60 were serving long sentences, 50 were serving life sentences and 47 were re-arrested after being freed in a 2011 prisoner exchange.

She added that 108 of the prisoners would be deported outside of Israel and the Palestinian territories after their release.

‘No forgiveness’

Military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said after an analysis of the remains that Palestinian militants had killed the Bibas boys “with their bare hands”.

Hamas, however, has long maintained an Israeli air strike killed them and their mother early in the war.

Shiri’s sister-in-law, Ofri Bibas, said Friday that the family was “not seeking revenge right now”, while levelling a measure of the blame at Netanyahu, telling him there would be “no forgiveness” for abandoning the mother and her young sons.

A fourth body, that of Oded Lifshitz, a veteran journalist and long-time defender of Palestinian rights, was also returned Thursday.

Hamas and its allies took 251 people hostages during the October 7 attack that sparked the war. There are 67 hostages still in Gaza, including more than 30 the Israeli military has said are dead.

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,214 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally until Friday of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,319 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.