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| Shiri Bibas’s body returned to Israel; officials assess she was ‘brutally’ murdered with sons in Gaza | |
| 2025-02-22 | |
| [IsraelTimes] Announcement comes after Hamas finally hands over body overnight, and day after her 2 young sons were determined to have been murdered by terrorists in Strip Kibbutz Nir Oz said earlier Saturday morning that resident Shiri Bibas was murdered while held captive in Gaza, after Hamas handed over her body overnight and it was brought to Israel for identification. “With pain and deep sorrow, Kibbutz Nir Oz announces the murder of Shiri Bibas, may her memory be a blessing, who was kidnapped from her home,” said a statement from the community, which was one of most devastated by the Hamas-led terror onslaught on October 7, 2023. According to assessments by Israeli officials, Shiri was “brutally” murdered along with her two young boys in November 2023. The announcement came a day after Hamas handed over remains that it said were Bibas turned out to be a Palestinian woman. Following Nir Oz’s announcement, the Bibas family put out a statement saying it held out hope that Shiri and her young sons Ariel and Kfir would return alive after being abducted by terrorists during the Hamas attack, having “requested certainty [about their fate] for 16 months, and now there’s no comfort in it.” “Shiri was a wonderful mother to Ariel and Kfir, a loving partner to Yarden, a dedicated sister and aunt and incredible friend,” the family added, saying details would soon be provided on the funeral and shiva. “Thanks to everyone for your support and love these 16 months, we wish that Shiri could be here to see it.” The Red Cross earlier confirmed transferring a body it collected from Hamas in the Gaza Strip to Israeli authorities. A police convoy then brought the body to the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv. Residents of the southern Eshkol Regional Council, where Nir Oz is located, lined up in the middle of the night in cold and blustery weather along the highway as the convoy passed by, waving Israeli and yellow flags in honor of the hostages. “Today, after 16 unbearable months, this real painful circle has finally been closed for the family and in the coming days she will return, together with her two small sons, to eternal rest in the soil of Israel,” added the statement from Kibbutz Nir Oz. The confirmation of Shiri’s death means that three generations of her family were murdered by terrorists — her parents Yossi and Margit Silberman were killed at Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, during the attack. The Hamas terror group was supposed to return Shiri Bibas on Thursday along with her young sons Ariel and Kfir, and fellow Kibbutz Nir Oz resident Oded Lifshitz. The remains of Ariel, Kfir and Lifshitz were later positively identified, with forensic evidence determining all three were killed over a year ago. The fourth body sent by Hamas, however, was later found to not be Shiri Bibas or any other hostage but the Palestinian woman from Gaza. Hamas later claimed that there had been a mix-up with the bodies during an Israeli airstrike, though the military said evidence clearly showed that Kfir and Ariel were murdered by Palestinian terrorists in November 2023 when they were respectively 10-months and 4-years-old. “The terrorists did not shoot the two young boys — they killed them with their bare hands. Afterward, they committed horrific acts to cover up these atrocities,” said IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari on Friday. Hagari added that he spoke on Thursday with the children’s father, recently released hostage Yarden Bibas, who demanded that he tell the world what had happened. Yarden was abducted separately by Hamas terrorists after he left the safe room of their Nir Oz home in an attempt to distract the gunmen and save his sons and wife. “The entire world must know exactly how the Hamas terrorist organization operates. Ariel and Kfir were murdered, and then on Thursday, their bodies were returned in a cynical and cruel ceremony in Gaza. Shiri Bibas, who was meant to be returned with her children to Israel as part of the agreement, was not returned by Hamas. Hamas lied and violated the agreement,” said Hagari, referring to the ongoing hostage release and ceasefire deal. Hamas, meanwhile, professed surprise at what it asserted was a mix-up over Shiri’s body, saying it would “examine these allegations very seriously” and announce the results of its investigation. Hamas called on Israel to return to Gaza the body of the Palestinian woman that it handed over in place of Shiri, which the Ynet news site said Israel return to Gaza would once Bibas was identified. The terror group then said it remains committed to implementing the current ceasefire-hostage release deal and vowed to uphold “all of our obligations,” claiming that it has no interest in holding on to any bodies of hostages. It also said it would proceed with the release of six live hostages on Saturday, saying it would release hostages Tal Shoham, Omer Shem-Tov, Eliya Cohen, Omer Wenkert, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed. No doubt with more ceremonies intended again to humiliate both prisoners and watchers. Evict them all. According to Hamas’s past statements, the six are the last of those to be returned under the first phase who are alive.Al-Sayed and Mengistu have been captive in Gaza for over a decade, after entering the Strip of their own accord. The others were abducted on October 7, 2023. In return, Israel will release 602 Palestinian security prisoners from jails on Saturday as part of the ongoing hostage release-ceasefire deal with Hamas. Amani Sarahneh, a spokeswoman for the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said those slated for release include 445 individuals from Gaza who were arrested after Hamas’s October 7 attack, 60 serving long sentences, 50 serving life sentences and 47 re-arrested after a 2011 exchange for captive IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. If any of them end up being rearrested, hang them, because they will be proved incapable of reforming. Or shoot them — as long as they are dead, I don’t care. Hamas is also due to release four more bodies next week, bringing an end to the first phase of the deal.The second part of the three-stage deal calls for the release of all the remaining hostages, in exchange for a permanent end to the war and the release of more Palestinian security inmates. It is believed that some 24 living hostages would be released in the second phase.
1, Israel continues negotiations for phase two of the ceasefire in hopes of regaining any living hostages; 2, Israel goes through the motions of negotiating for phase two of the ceasefire while simultaneously preparing to attack Gaza and Iran in the coming days or weeks. Israel has just received last week the weapons that they had bought from the United States, but that the Biden administration had refused to release for months. With these new weapons, the military strength of Israel will increase exponentially; or 3, Israel decides that ceasefire negotiations are not helping retrieve any of the remaining hostages but rather are making the entire region more dangerous. As a result, they launch strikes against Gaza and Iran shortly after Saturday's exchange. Whichever choices are ultimately made, we will all be immersed in pain with the delivery of the dead bodies, especially of the children. We all need to feel emotional pain and sadness for the evils that Hamas has done. And then we need to be conscious of the justifiable anger at Hamas that every compassionate human being feels when this type of evil is recognized. And in the midst of our anger, we must heed the old advice to pause and count to ten … if only because it helps us aim better. | |
| Posted by:trailing wife |