US hostage envoy warns Hamas over ‘horrific’ decision to send anonymous body to Israel

A top US official issues a stark warning for Hamas after the Israeli military said the terror group released an anonymous body and not that of an Israeli hostage.

Speaking to CNN, Adam Boehler, who serves as the United States envoy for hostages, calls the Hamas decision to release the unidentified body “horrific” and a “clear violation” of the ceasefire halting fighting in the Gaza Strip

“If I were them, I’d release everybody or they are going to face total annihilation,” he says.

Boehler also says that Israel gave advance notice to senior US officials that the remains were not of Shiri Bibas and that forensic evidence determined that her sons Ariel and Kfir were murdered in November 2023 by terrorists.

“I don’t know what [Hamas] thought when they put the body of somebody else in a coffin and said that it was the mother of two kids who had been brutally murdered, whether they thought Israel wouldn’t find that out or not, but it’s absolutely stunning,” he said.

The remains of an Israeli mother and her two young children were expected to be released by Hamas today. U.S. Envoy for Hostage Affairs Adam Boehler reacts to the shocking development that Israel says one of the four remains did not actually belong to any of the Israeli hostages. pic.twitter.com/Vus6WAgZCG

— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) February 21, 2025