The Palestinian armed group Hamas has said it was investigating Israel’s claim that one of the bodies it handed over to Israel on Thursday as part of the ongoing Gaza ceasefire deal was not that of female captive Shiri Bibas.
In a statement released on Friday, Hamas said there might have been “the possibility of an error or overlap in the bodies” as it promised to “clearly” announce the findings of its probe. The group added the mix-up may have been the result of Israeli forces bombing “the place where the family was with other Palestinians”.
“We have received the occupation’s allegations and claims from the mediator brothers, and we will examine these claims with complete seriousness, and we will announce the results clearly,” the statement said.
The response came after the Israeli army said the remains of the two returned child captives, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, had been identified by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine and Israel Police. However, it said a third body was not that of their 32-year-old mother, as Hamas had claimed, or any other captive.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu then accused Hamas of committing a “cruel and evil” violation of the ceasefire deal, which has brought a weeks-long pause in 15 months of fighting and the gradual release of both Palestinian and Israeli captives.
“We will act with determination to bring Shiri home along with all our hostages – both living and dead – and ensure Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and evil violation of the agreement,” Netanyahu said.
Hamas had handed over the four bodies, which also included the remains of 83-year-old captive Oded Lifshitz, in the final days of the first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
As part of that phase, six living captives were also set to be released by Hamas on Saturday in exchange for 602 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, the Palestinian group has said.
Hamas identified those to be released from captivity in Gaza as Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov, Tal Shoham, Omer Wenkert, Hisham al-Sayed and Avera Mengisto.
Israel, Hamas trade blame over captive deaths
Hamas and Israel have offered opposing accounts of how the Bibas family and Lifshitz were killed, putting further stress on the delicate deal.
The Israeli military said Friday that intelligence assessments and forensic analysis of the bodies of the Bibas children indicated that they were deliberately killed by their captors. They did not provide further details on the claim.
The director of the Gaza Government Media office on Friday again laid the blame for the deaths on Netanyahu. Hamas had previously announced that the four had been killed in an Israeli air attack in November 2023.
“Netanyahu himself is the one who issued orders for the direct and merciless bombing, and he is the one who bears full responsibility for killing her and her children with horrific brutality,” Ismail al-Thawabta wrote on the social media site, X.
The Bibas family has also laid the blame for the deaths on Netanyahu, with Shiri Bibas’s sister-in-law, Ofri Bibas, saying it was Israeli officials’ “responsibility and obligation to bring them back alive”.
“There is no forgiveness for abandoning them on October 7, and no forgiveness for abandoning them in captivity. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, we did not receive an apology from you in this painful moment,” she said in a statement.
For its part, the Red Cross, which has been overseeing the captive releases, has criticised Hamas for releasing the bodies of the captives in a public event.
The humanitarian organisation told the Reuters news agency it was “concerned and unsatisfied” that Thursday’s handover of the bodies had not been conducted privately.
The latest developments come as mediators are seeking a breakthrough in talks on the ceasefire’s second phase.
That period, which has only been agreed to by the parties in principle, is meant to see the release of all remaining captives in Gaza in exchange for a permanent end to the war.
But Mohamad Bazzi, an associate professor at New York University, told Al Jazeera that the “tremendous public anger whipped up inside Israel” over the controversy surrounding the bodies is heaping pressure on Netanyahu from within his own government to resume fighting after the first phase is complete.
Bazzi said that the Israeli right-wing had seized on the moment to press for a return to war.
For its part, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, one of the main groups representing families of captives held in Gaza, said they were “horrified and devastated” by the news that Shiri Bibas’s body had not been returned.
They called for the ceasefire to continue so that the dozens of captives still held in the Palestinian enclave could be released.
“Save them from this nightmare,” the group said in a statement.
