GAZA: Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has taken to the X (twitter) Friday (21st Feb 2025) to claim that one of the four caskets returned by Hamas a day earlier to Red Crescent harbored an anonymous body.

It may be recalled that IDF confirmed on 20th Feb that four caskets of the deceased hostages had been picked up by Red Cross. It is pertinent to mention here that Hamas, negating the Israeli accusation that the captives were tortured to death, had repeated its claim that the hostages were victims of Israeli bombing carried out in the month of November 2023.

Hamas, maintaining that it attempted to preserve the lives of the hostages, held the continuous Israeli bombardment made it impossible: “You were a victim of a leadership that does not care about its children”. IDF confirmed the receipt of elderly 4th hostage Oded Lifshitz’s remains.

IDF tweeted: “During the identification process, it was determined that the additional body received is not that of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other hostage. This is an anonymous, unidentified body. This is a violation of utmost severity by the Hamas terrorist organisation, which is obligated under the agreement to return four deceased hostages. We demand that Hamas return Shiri home along with all our hostages.”

Yarden Bibas (34), his wife Shiri (32), their children Kfir Bibas (9) and Ariel Bibas (4) were taken to Gaza during 7th Oct attack. Children’s Father was released by Hamas on 1st of February, 2025. Israel said though bodies of two children were identified, the third body was not of their mother Shiri Bibas. It demanded the return of her body.

Hamas returns the remains of Shiri Bibas next day:

Hamas, admitting the mistake of returning an identified person’s body to Red Cross on 20th Feb, handed over the body of Shiri Bibas the next day. Her family acknowledged receipt of her remains and said: “Our Shiri … has now returned home.”

Newspakistan.tv