Middle East Tensions
Advertisement
Supported by
Hamas said it handed over four hostages to Israel in a display a senior U.N. official called “abhorrent and cruel.” Israel later said only three bodies belonged to captives.
By Aaron Boxerman and Rawan Sheikh Ahmad
Aaron Boxerman reported from Jerusalem, and Rawan Sheikh Ahmad from Haifa, Israel.
Hamas handed over on Thursday what it said were the remains of four Israelis taken hostage during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, including two young children whose abduction was widely seen as emblematic of the viciousness of the Hamas assault.
But early on Friday morning, the Israeli military said that only three of the bodies belonged to the hostages slated to be handed over. They were Oded Lifshitz, 83, a retiree and a peace activist; Ariel Bibas, 4; and Kfir Bibas, 10 months old; according to Israeli officials.
The fourth body was supposed to be the children’s mother, Shiri Bibas. But Israeli forensic testing found it did not belong to her, the Israeli military said, describing it as a “violation of the utmost severity” of the ongoing cease-fire. The claim threw the truce’s next steps into doubt after an already tense day that had ignited a torrent of emotion in the country.
Hamas said the four hostages were killed by Israeli airstrikes. The Israeli authorities said the two Bibas children were “brutally murdered by terrorists,” and that Mr. Lifshitz had been “murdered in the captivity of Palestinian Islamic Jihad” without providing further details. Neither claim could be immediately verified.