Netanyahu vows revenge as Hamas hands over bodies of youngest hostages

Israel has revealed one of the bodies handed over by Hamas after a macabre spectacle overnight is not that of Shiri Bibas, as the militants had claimed.

She was the mother of infant Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother Ariel and was abducted along with her sons during the October 7, 2023 attack.

Palestinian militants handed over four black coffins in a carefully orchestrated public display overnight, with dozens of armed Hamas militants and crowds of Palestinians gathering to watch.

Rather than a respectful, private handover, as requested by Israel, Hamas instead displayed the coffins on a stage with the backdrop a large image of Mr Netanyahu portrayed as Dracula above photos of the Bibas family.

In a post on X, the Israel Defence Force revealed that “based on the intelligence available to us and forensic findings from the identification process, Ariel and Kfir Bibas were brutally murdered by terrorists in captivity in November 2023”.

“During the identification process, it was determined that the additional body received is not that of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other hostage. This is an anonymous, unidentified body.

“This is a violation of utmost severity by the Hamas terrorist organization, which is obligated under the agreement to return four deceased hostages. We demand that Hamas return Shiri home along with all our hostages.”

A fourth body returned with the Bibas children and the anonymous remains have been confirmed as those of Oded Lifshitz, 83, who was murdered while in captivity.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier vowed revenge after Hamas turned the release of the bodies into an horrific spectacle.

Several missiles were placed next to the coffins. On them was written the message “they were killed by USA bombs”.

A sign nearby said: “The war criminal Netanyahu and his Nazi army killed them with missiles from Zionist warplanes.”

Militants also stood beside a poster of a man standing over coffins wrapped in Israeli flags. Instead of legs he had tree roots in the ground, suggesting the land belongs to Palestinians.

The poster read “The Return of the War=The Return of your Prisoners in Coffins”.

The terrorist group also planted propaganda material inside the coffins which was only discovered when they were opened in Israel.

A furious Mr Netanyahu has lashed out, labelling the militants as “monsters”.

“We will return all our hostages, destroy the murderers, eliminate Hamas and together — with God’s help — we will secure our future,” Mr Netanyahu said in a video message after the handover.

United Nations rights chief Volker Turk called the parading of bodies in Gaza abhorrent and cruel and said it flew in the face of international law.

“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 said in a statement.

After the hostages were handed over by the Red Cross, the coffins were scanned for explosives, according to the military, before being transported to Israel.

Israelis lined the road in the rain near the Gaza border to pay their respects as the convoy carrying the coffins drove by.

“We stand here together, with a broken heart, the sky is also crying with us and we pray to see better days,” said one woman, who gave her name only as Efrat.

In Tel Aviv, people gathered, some weeping, at what has come to be known as Hostages Square outside Israel’s defence headquarters.

“Agony. Pain. There are no words. Our hearts — the hearts of an entire nation — lie in tatters,” said President Isaac Herzog.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country was “united in unbearable grief” and vowed to “eliminate” Hamas.

The two boys, the anonymous remains and Mr Lifschitz, were handed over under the Gaza ceasefire agreement reached last month with the backing of the United States and the mediation of Qatar and Egypt.

Kfir Bibas was nine months old when the Bibas family, including their father Yarden, was abducted at Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of a string of communities near Gaza that were overrun by Hamas-led attackers from Gaza.

Hamas said in November 2023 that the boys and their mother had been killed in an Israeli air strike but their deaths were never confirmed by Israeli authorities.

“Shiri and the kids became a symbol,” said Yiftach Cohen, of the Nir Oz kibbutz, which lost around a quarter of its residents, either killed or kidnapped, during the assault.

Yarden Bibas was returned in an exchange for prisoners this month.

Some of those Israelis killed on October 7 were known peace activists.

Lifshitz was 83 when he was abducted from Nir Oz, the kibbutz he helped found. His wife, Yocheved, 85 at the time, was seized with him and released two weeks later, along with another woman.

“Our family’s healing process will begin now and will not end until the last hostage is returned,” the family said.

The Hamas-led attack into Israel killed some 1200 people, according to Israeli tallies, with 251 kidnapped. Israel’s subsequent military campaign has killed some 48,000 people, Palestinian health authorities say, and left densely populated Gaza in ruins.

The handover marks the first return of dead bodies during the current agreement.

Thursday’s handover of bodies will be followed by the return of six living hostages on Saturday, in exchange for hundreds more Palestinians, expected to be women and minors detained by Israeli forces in Gaza during the war.

Negotiations for a second phase, expected to cover the return of around 60 remaining hostages, less than half of whom are believed to be alive, and a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip to allow an end to the war, are expected to begin in the coming days.