Hamas stages macabre ceremony to release bodies of four Israeli hostages, said to include Bibas children and their mother

Hamas on Thursday put on a macabre handover ceremony in central Gaza to return the bodies of four Israeli hostages taken on October 7, 2023.

Hamas on Thursday put on a macabre handover ceremony in central Gaza to return the bodies of four Israeli hostages taken on October 7, 2023. It was the first time the militant group has released the remains of dead hostages since its attack on Israel, and marked a somber turn for a country more used to elation when former captives returned home alive. Among those released were said to be the bodies of Shiri Bibas, who was aged 32 when she and her sons Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 9 months, were abducted from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, southern Israel by Hamas-led militants more than 16 months ago. The two boys have become the most recognizable victims of the October 7 terror attacks. The fourth body was that of Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 years old when he and his wife, Yocheved Lifshitz, were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Yocheved was released by Hamas on October 24, 2023. At a press conference Thursday, the Head of Israel’s National Center of Forensic Medicine Dr. Chen Kugel said experts had confirmed that one of the bodies was Lifshitz, but did not comment on the other three bodies. As in past weeks, Hamas used the handover ceremony as an opportunity for anti-Israel propaganda. But the juxtaposition of four black coffins borne by masked militants rather than living hostages led to widespread condemnation in Israel, whose television networks – unlike in past weeks – did not carry the ceremony live. Loud music blared as Red Cross workers loaded coffins into armored SUVs.