After Hamas initially sent back the wrong body to Israel on Thursday, rather than that of Shiri Bibas, who along with her children was murdered after being taken hostage on October 7, 2023 by Hamas terrorists, the mother and wife has returned home. Shiri and her children, Kfir who was 10-months-old when murdered, and Ariel, who was 4-years-old, were some of the most prolific hostage and murder victims.
Despite the late hours in Israel when Shiri's body was returned, many still lined the streets to watch as she was returned, even though forensics had not yet confirmed the body was hers.
It's 5:04 AM in Israel, and it has just been officially announced that Shiri Bibas, the mother of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, was also brutally murdered in captivity in Gaza, along with her two children.
— Vivid.🇮🇱 (@VividProwess) February 22, 2025
I am absolutely heartbroken by this. pic.twitter.com/efNtiVy0OT
The Bibas Family just issued this statement: "Tonight, our Shiri has returned home. After the identification process at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, this morning we received the news we feared the most. Our Shiri was murdered in captivity and has now returned home to her… pic.twitter.com/q6Y3EHBjZp
— Noa Tishby (@noatishby) February 22, 2025
The convoy carrying the body believed to be of Shiri Bibas arrives at Israel’s national forensic center in Tel Aviv.
— Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران (@ariel_oseran) February 22, 2025
It’s 2:45 am on Shabbat and dozens of Israelis came to pay last respects to who they hope is Shiri. 🇮🇱🎗️ pic.twitter.com/aCGgNBWdZm
Despite the late hour, citizens came to pay their respects to Shiri Bibas. 🧡🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/NjP6hKolWP
— Eli Afriat 🇮🇱🎗 (@EliAfriatISR) February 21, 2025
As the statement from the Bibas family read:
Tonight, our Shiri has returned home.
After the identification process at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, this morning we received the news we feared the most. Our Shiri was murdered in captivity and has now returned home to her sons, husband, sister, and all her family to rest.
Despite our fears for their fate, we kept hoping we would get to hug them again, and now we are broken and grieving. For 16 months, we sought certainty, and now that we have it, there is no comfort in it, but we hope for the beginning of a closure.
Shiri was a wonderful mother to Ariel and Kfir, a loving partner to Yarden, a devoted sister and aunt, and an amazing friend.
In this difficult time, we continue to demand the immediate return of all the remaining hostages. Nothing is more important than that. There will be no healing without them.
The details of the funeral and shiv'ah will be published in due course.
Please give the family the space to process and mourn.
Thank you all for your support and love during these past 16 months.
We only wish Shiri had lived to see it.
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The bodies of Kfir and Ariel were returned on Thursday, and forensics confirmed that they were those of the young children. While Hamas had claimed that it was an Israeli airstrike that killed them, the IDF confirmed that they were "brutally murdered" with "bare hands" in November 2023. Hamas even mutilated their bodies to make it look as if they had been killed in an airstrike. Shiri was also "brutally" murdered, according to a statement from Kibbutz Nir Oz, as covered by The Times of Israel. The Bibas family, along with one of the oldest hostages, Oded Lifshitz, who was 83-years-old when taken hostage and murdered, were from Nir Oz. Lifshitz's body was returned on Thursday and confirmed to be his.
As we've been covering, outlets such as the Associated Press spread such propaganda by repeating that line on Thursday that they were believed to have been killed in such a manner.
"Hamas has claimed all four of the hostages returned Thursday were killed in Israeli airstrikes," the piece mentioned. The piece had also mentioned that Shiri and her children "were long feared dead," even before their bodies were correctly identified.
BREAKING: A Red Cross convoy heads back to Israel after Hamas releases bodies of four Israeli hostages, said to include a mother and her two children who were long feared dead. https://t.co/oltFyNoseU
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 20, 2025
The AP's subsequent coverage, as Shiri's actual body was being returned, remained problematic.
As another ratioed post from Saturday morning reads, Hamas are merely "Palestinian militants" rather than a terrorist group, and Shiri and her sons merely "died in captivity."
There's no mention in the actual piece that Shiri and her young children were brutally murdered.
BREAKING: A body released by Palestinian militants overnight was confirmed by the family to be of Shiri Bibas, the Israeli mother whose sons also died in captivity. https://t.co/fcIypPLcGV
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 22, 2025
The three bodies of Lifshitz and the Bibas children, as well as that of an unidentified woman who wasn't even a hostage, were not released before Hamas terrorists paraded their bodies through Gaza, to the celebration of "civilians" present. Even children and babies were among those present for the spectacle. The terrorists also added propaganda to the coffins, adding "date of arrest" as October 7, 2023. On that day, Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, killing 1,200 Israelis, with not even babies or Holocaust victims being spared a tragic fate. Hamas also engaged in rape, torture, and kidnapping, taking approximately 250 people hostage, with many still needing to be released.
Six living hostages were exchanged as part of a prisoner swap on Saturday, though Israel has had to set free over 600 Palestinian prisoners serving sentences for violent crimes.
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