Hamas claims Shiri Bibas’s remains were mixed with other human remains in rubble of airstrike

After Israel said a body returned from Gaza yesterday was not that of Shiri Bibas, Hamas claims that the Israeli hostage’s remains had been mixed with other human remains from the rubble after an Israeli air strike hit the place where she was being held.

Hamas official Ismail al-Thawabteh claims that Shiri’s body “was turned into pieces after apparently being mixed with other bodies under the rubble,” reiterating its claim that Israel was behind her death.

Hamas has claimed for the past year that Shiri and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, were killed in an Israeli airstrike. Israeli authorities said overnight that the remains of Ariel and Kfir were identified and that they were murdered by terrorists in captivity.

They said the remains placed in a coffin labeled with Shiri’s face were actually that of an unidentified Gazan woman.

Israeli officials say that the body handed over was in a condition that authorities at the Abu Kabir forensic institute were able to definitively determine it did not belong to Shiri.

They say the body was also dressed in clothing, and was examined several times by the institute. The body’s DNA was tested against that of Shiri and all other female hostages still held by Hamas, and none of them matched.