The Albany Gazette - Israel says hostage body returned by Hamas not Bibas mother

Thousands of mourning Israelis had observed a moment of silence Thursday in honour of four dead hostages returned by Hamas, the first handover of bodies under the fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas said the remains included those of Bibas and her two young sons, whose father was released by the militant group this month.

On Friday, however, Israel said the body purporting to be Shiri Bibas's did not belong to her and "does not match any other kidnapped individuals".

Military spokesman Avichay Adraee said on Telegram that Israel had identified the remains of Bibas boys Ariel and Kfir, accusing Palestinian "terrorists" of killing them.

"According to the assessment of the relevant authorities and based on available intelligence and diagnostic indicators, Ariel and Kfir Bibas were brutally killed in captivity in November 2023 by Palestinian terrorists," Adraee said.

Hamas has long maintained an Israeli air strike killed the Bibas family early in the war.

Hamas also handed over the body of a fourth hostage, Oded Lifshitz, a veteran journalist and long-time defender of Palestinian rights.

The bodies' repatriation is part of the six-week initial phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which took effect on January 19 and so far has led to the release of 19 living Israeli hostages in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners.

- Bus blasts -

Palestinian militants on Thursday staged a ceremony to return the bodies at a former cemetery in the southern Gazan city of Khan Yunis.

Ahead of the handover, Hamas and members of other armed Palestinian groups displayed four black coffins with small photos of the deceased, while mock-up missiles nearby carried the message: "They were killed by USA bombs," a reference to Israel's top military supplier.

"We are all enraged at the monsters of Hamas," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said in a video message, vowing again to destroy the group.

At around the same time as the handover, police in central Israel reported a "suspected terror attack", saying three bombs had exploded on or around buses and more were being defused, though no injuries were immediately reported.

"These are identical explosive devices with a timer," a police spokesman told AFP.

Security forces and bomb disposal units were seen by an AFP journalist as they inspected the remains of destroyed buses.

Some Israeli media outlets reported bus drivers countrywide had been asked to stop and inspect their vehicles for other devices.

Large numbers of police had been deployed to search for suspects, the police statement said.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said that following the "serious attempted attacks", he had ordered the military to "intensify operations" in the Tulkarem refugee camp and other areas of the occupied West Bank.

- The youngest hostage -

Earlier Thursday, flag-waving Israelis had lined the route along which a convoy carrying the returned bodies travelled from southern Israel to Tel Aviv.

Tania Coen Uzzielli, 59, who had come to the Tel Aviv plaza dubbed "Hostages Square", said it was "one of the hardest days, I think, since October 7".

During their attack that day in 2023 that triggered the Gaza war, Hamas filmed and later broadcast footage showing the Bibas family's abduction from their home near the Gaza border.

Ariel was then aged four, while Kfir was the youngest hostage at just nine months old. Yarden Bibas, the boys' father and Shiri's husband, was abducted separately and released in a previous hostage-prisoner swap on February 1.

Hamas said in a statement that it and its armed wing had done "everything in their power to protect the prisoners (hostages) and preserve their lives".

Tahani Fayad, 40, was among the hundreds of people gathered to witness the handover ceremony in Gaza, which she called "proof that the occupation (Israel) will not defeat us".

- Next phase -

Palestinian prisoners are also set to be freed in Saturday's swap, but were not part of Thursday's handover.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has said talks will begin this week on the truce's second phase, aiming to lay out a more permanent end to the war.

A Hamas spokesman on Thursday accused Netanyahu of "procrastinating regarding the second phase", saying the group was "ready to engage".

Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP on Wednesday that Hamas was ready to free all remaining hostages held in Gaza in a single swap during phase two.

Hamas and its allies took 251 people hostage during the October 7 attack. Prior to Thursday's handover, there were 70 hostages still in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military has said are dead.

That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,319 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.

(T.Wright--TAG)