The director of the Abu Kabir National Institute of Forensic Medicine, Dr. Chen Kugel, confirmed on Saturday that his team had positively identified the remains of hostage Shiri Bibas, two days after Hamas initially handed over the body of an unknown Gazan woman in place of her remains.
Kugel also said there was no evidence that Bibas died in an explosion, refuting Hamas’s claims that she and her sons were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Bibas was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with her two young sons, Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 9 months old, during the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion and massacre in southern Israel. The family’s father Yarden was abducted separately and was released on February 1 during the first phase of the ceasefire and hostage release deal.
The Hamas terror group was supposed to return Shiri on Thursday along with her young sons, and fellow Kibbutz Nir Oz resident Oded Lifshitz. But after the remains of Ariel, Kfir and Lifshitz were positively identified, the fourth body was found to be that of an unnamed Palestinian woman from Gaza.
After Hamas claimed that there must have been a mix-up with the bodies, the terror group transferred a fifth body to the Red Cross late on Friday night, which was then handed over to the IDF in the Gaza Strip.
Troops held a brief military ceremony, draping the coffin in an Israeli flag before it was carried by officers into a military vehicle and transferred to Abu Kabir.
Kibbutz Nir Oz confirmed early Saturday morning that Shiri had been murdered while held captive, and that her body had been positively identified.
Dr. Chen Kugel, director of the National Institute of Forensic Medicine (Abu Kabir) speaks to the media on February 20, 2025. (Screencapture)
In live remarks to the press on Saturday evening, Kugel confirmed that the forensic institute had identified her remains and that, despite Hamas’s claims that she and her sons had been killed in an Israeli airstrike in November 2023, there was no evidence at all that she had been killed in an explosion.
“We identified Shiri Bibas two days after we identified her children,” Kugel said. “Our examination found no evidence of injuries caused by bombing.”
Kugel said that the medical staff at Abu Kabir had worked “professionally and carefully to provide clear answers to the Lifshitz and Bibas-Silberman families” since receiving the bodies, first on Thursday and then on Friday night. “It’s a difficult day for the families, for us, the medical staff, and for the entire nation of Israel,” he added.
The military previously said forensic evidence had shown that, like Shiri, neither Ariel nor Kfir was killed in an Israeli strike but were murdered by their terrorist captors “in cold blood” in November 2023.
“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 said he had spoken to the children’s father Yarden on Thursday and that he had demanded the world be told what happened to his sons.
Assessments issued by Israeli officials after the body had been identified said that Shiri had been likewise “brutally” murdered by her captors in November 2023.
‘We will not forget or forgive’
In response to the findings, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Israel “will not forget and will not forgive” the murders of the three members of the Bibas family.
Yarden, Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas (Courtesy)
Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that their murder would “not be taken lightly.”
The “exciting and joyous moment” on Saturday of the release of six hostages from Gaza was “also accompanied by deep pain over the fate of Shiri Bibas and her sons Ariel and Kfir, who were brutally murdered by Hamas and their partners,” he said. “This brutal and horrific act will not be taken lightly.”
Hamas, meanwhile, continued to insist that the family had been killed in an airstrike, and accused Israel on Saturday night of spreading “baseless lies” about their deaths.
“The false allegations that the criminal [Israeli] occupation is disseminating about the deaths of the Bibas children at the hands of their captors are merely baseless lies and fabrications,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem claimed.
The confirmation of Shiri’s death meant 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.
In a statement on Saturday morning, the kibbutz said that “after 16 unbearable months, this painful circle has finally been closed for the family and in the coming days [Shiri] will return, together with her two sons, to eternal rest in the soil of Israel.”
In addition to the bodies of the Bibas family and Ofer Lifshitz, Hamas has so far released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — during a ceasefire that began in January. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that in the early weeks of the war.
Eight hostages have been rescued alive from captivity by troops, and the bodies of 41 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors, and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are still holding 63 hostages, including 62 of the 251 abducted on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 36 confirmed dead by the IDF.
The body of Lt. Hadar Goldin, who was killed in 2014, is still being held by Hamas and is counted among the 63 hostages.
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