Israel names Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, Oded Lifshitz as the slain hostages supposed to return Thursday
IDF to hold small ceremony in Gaza when it receives remains; Hamas official says terror group prepared to release all remaining captives in single ‘batch’ during phase two of truce
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed on Wednesday evening that Israel received the list of slain hostages who are set to be returned Thursday.
The four were named as Shiri Bibas, Ariel Bibas, Kfir Bibas, and Oded Lifshitz, all kidnapped from their homes in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023.
The Prime Minister’s Office said their families had been notified.
“In this difficult time, our hearts are with the grieving families,” the premier’s office said. “We will continue to provide reliable updates as needed and ask to refrain from spreading rumors or unofficial information.”
The Bibas family said later Wednesday they did not approve the names to be published. The Prime Minister’s Office blamed the IDF for the error, and the IDF apologized for what it said was “the mistake that was made in good faith vis-à-vis the families, as well as the emotional distress caused.”
Hamas announced earlier in the week that it would be handing over the bodies of Shiri Silberman Bibas and her two young children Ariel and Kfir, who were aged 4 years and nine months, respectively, when they were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, during the Hamas-led invasion and slaughter in southern Israel.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad has held Oded Lifshitz, who was aged 83 when he was abducted. His wife, Yocheved, was kidnapped separately that day and was released by Hamas 16 days later.
The couple, who were among the founders of Nir Oz, were lifelong peace activists and would regularly transport patients from Gaza to receive medical care in hospitals across Israel. Oded, a great-grandfather, was a journalist and a passionate advocate for human rights.
“Tomorrow will be a very difficult day for the State of Israel — a shocking day, a day of grief,” Netanyahu said in a video statement. “We are bringing home four of our beloved abductees, who have fallen.”
“We embrace the families, and the heart of an entire nation is torn apart. My heart is torn. Yours is too. And the heart of the whole world should be torn as well, because here we see who we are dealing with, what we are dealing with — monsters,” he continued.
“We mourn, we hurt, but we are also determined to ensure that such a thing never happens again,” Netanyahu added.
Shiri Bibas, 32 at the time, was kidnapped from her Nir Oz home on October 7, 2023, along with Ariel and Kfir. The family’s father, Yarden, was abducted separately, after he left the safe room in an attempt to distract the gunmen and save his family. He was freed from Gaza on February 1.
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Footage from the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel showed Bibas clutching her red-headed sons as they were led away by gunmen. The IDF later released a video it found, showing them being moved between buildings in Khan Younis in the early days of their captivity.
Their fate since then has remained unknown, and Hamas claimed in November 2023 that they had been killed in an IDF airstrike. Israel did not confirm the claim, which it said was cruel propaganda, but has acknowledged since that there are “grave concerns” for the young family.
Gaza ceremony, then identification
Earlier Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces announced that it was readying for Thursday’s transfer of four slain hostages, including preparations for a brief military ceremony upon receiving the remains.
The bodies will be handed over by Hamas to the Red Cross, which will bring them to Israeli forces inside the Gaza Strip.
The IDF said it plans to hold a respectful ceremony in Gaza upon receiving the slain hostages, with a rabbi present. The bodies will be placed in coffins draped in Israeli flags and carried by Israeli troops into IDF vehicles.
From there, the bodies will be taken to the Abu Kabir forensic institute for identification.
The identification process could take up to 48 hours, officials said, depending on the condition of the remains. Within a few hours, officials are expected to update the families of the slain hostages on how much longer it will take to confirm the identity of their loved ones.
The IDF said that it would also investigate the causes of the deaths of the hostages, and that at this stage, all claims made by Hamas are unverified.
The military said it does not know for certain at what time Hamas will hand over the four bodies, though it expects it to occur at a similar time to the recent releases of the living hostages, which have taken place in the morning.
The IDF also does not know how Hamas will hand over the bodies. During the release of living hostages, Hamas paraded the captives on a stage in front of crowds of Palestinians.
Officials asked Israeli media to refrain from broadcasting any such events involving hostages’ remains.
The Red Cross also called for privacy and dignity ahead of Thursday’s release.
“We must be clear: any degrading treatment during release operations is unacceptable,” the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement.
On Saturday, Hamas is slated to release six living hostages: Tal Shoham, Omer Shem-Tov, Eliya Cohen, Omer Wenkert, Avera Mengistu, and Hisham al-Sayed.
Al-Sayed and Mengistu have been captive in Gaza for over a decade, after entering the Strip of their own accord. The others were abducted during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, terror onslaught that sparked the war in Gaza.
According to Hamas’s past statements, the six are the last of those to be returned under the first phase who are alive.
The remaining hostages on the list of 33 captives in the first phase of the ceasefire deal are Shiri Bibas, Kfir Bibas, Ariel Bibas, Itzik Elgarat, Shlomo Mantzur, Ohad Yahalomi, Oded Lifshitz, and Tsahi Idan.
The only name on the list whose death Israel has officially confirmed is Mantzur. Israel has said it has concerns for the other seven.
Hamas ‘ready to release all hostages in one batch’ during phase 2
Also, Wednesday, a senior Hamas official said the Palestinian terror group was prepared to release all remaining hostages in a single swap during the second phase of the ceasefire.
“We have informed the mediators that Hamas is ready to release all hostages in one batch during the second phase of the agreement, rather than in stages, as in the current first phase,” Taher al-Nunu told AFP.
Nunu did not clarify how many hostages were currently held by Hamas or other terror groups.
Israel and Hamas are currently in the process of implementing the first phase of the truce, which began on January 19.
Hamas has so far released 24 hostages — 19 Israeli civilians and female soldiers, and five Thai nationals — during the current ceasefire, which began on January 19. The terror group also freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that.
Seventy of the hostages abducted on October 7 remain in Gaza, along with three captives held from before the war; 35 of them have been confirmed dead by the IDF.
Eight hostages have been rescued alive by troops, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.
