Hamas on Thursday turned over to Israel the bodies of four hostages held in the Gaza Strip, including the presumed remains of two young boys and their mother.
The Palestinian militant group first transferred the bodies to Red Cross representatives, who then took them to members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office.
The bodies were handed over to the Red Cross during a choreographed event at the handover site in Khan Younis, in the southern part of the coastal strip.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog expressed deep sorrow and regret at the handover. “Agony. Pain. There are no words,” Herzog posted on X. “Our hearts – the hearts of an entire nation – lie in tatters,” he added.
Herzog also pleaded for forgiveness on behalf of the state of Israel. “Forgiveness for not protecting you on that terrible day. Forgiveness for not bringing you home safely,” he wrote.
Numerous cheering onlookers gathered at the scene, alongside dozens of hooded and masked militants in uniform, as live images showed.
Four black coffins were displayed on the stage, with a backdrop depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a bloodied vampire hovering over images of the four deceased hostages.
“The war criminal Netanyahu and his Nazi army killed them with missiles from Zionist warplanes,” read the text next to the images. An Israeli TV presenter described the scene as a “theatre of terror.”
Before the black coffins were loaded into Red Cross vehicles, staff erected white screens to block out the Hamas propaganda. The organization had earlier called for the dignity of hostages to be observed during the handover.
Dozens of people waited at the edge of the Gaza Strip in pouring rain as the coffins were driven into Israel. During the handover to the Israeli army in the presence of a military rabbi, the coffins were draped in blue and white Israeli flags. They were first due to be taken to the National Institute of Forensic Medicine to undergo identification procedures.
According to Hamas, the deceased include a mother and her two young sons: Shiri Bibas and her boys, Ariel and Kfir, who also held German nationality. Their identities have not yet been confirmed, but the fourth deceased was later identified by the Israeli government as Oded Lifschitz.
Lifschitz was murdered while in the captivity of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. The announcement gave his age as 83, although Israeli reports consistently mentioned that he was 84 years old.
“We received with deep sorrow the official and bitter news confirming the identification of our beloved Oded’s body,” the family said in a statement released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
“503 agonizing days of uncertainty have come to an end. We had hoped and prayed so much for a different outcome,” it continued. The man was a retired journalist and activist for Palestinian rights.
Video footage of Shiri Bibas and her two red-haired sons, captured during their abduction from Kibbutz Nir Oz following the Hamas-led massacre in the Israeli border area on October 7, 2023, was broadcast around the world.
Ariel Bibas was 4 years old at the time of the attack; his brother Kfir was just 9 months. Their father, Yarden, was also taken on October 7. He was released alive earlier this month.
This marks the first time that the remains of Israeli victims have been handed over since the start of the Gaza war.
The Israeli army has recovered several hostage bodies from the Gaza Strip and brought them back to Israel.
Hamas claims that the three Bibas family members were killed in Israeli airstrikes during the early months of the war.
In exchange for the hostages, Israel is to hand over all women and minors detained since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip who were not directly involved in armed conflict against Israel.
Four more bodies are to be handed over next week, according to Hamas, and six more hostages are to be freed alive on Saturday.
UN human rights chief decries ‘parading of bodies’ by Hamas
UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk strongly condemned the conduct of Hamas during the handover of the remains.
“The parading of bodies in the manner seen this morning is abhorrent and cruel, and flies in the face of international law,” Türk said on Thursday.
“Under international law, any handover of the remains of deceased must comply with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, ensuring respect for the dignity of the deceased and their families,” he added.
