Posted on 02/19/25
| News Source: Arutz-7
Jerusalem, Israel - Feb. 19, 2025 - The Prime Minister's office announced on Wednesday that Israel has received the list of hostages who died in captivity whose bodies are due to be released on Thursday, pursuant to the framework. The four murdered hostages who will be returned are Shiri Bibas, her young sons, Ariel and Kfir, and Oded Lifshitz.
The Prime Minister's Office stated that the Coordinator for the Hostages and the Missing, Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Gal Hirsch has updated the families of the hostages via the representatives of the IDF.
"At this difficult hour, our hearts are with the grieving families. Additional credible information will be provided as needed, and we request to refrain from disseminating rumors and unofficial information," the Prime Minister's Office stated.
The Hamas terrorists are expected to hand the bodies over to the Red Cross at around 8:00 a.m. local time in the Bani Suheila area of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. According to reports, Hamas plans to hold a ceremony in which the bodies will be handed over to the Red Cross.
After the deceased are transferred to the IDF, a military ceremony in their honor will be held in the Gaza Strip. From there, the caskets will be taken on IDF vehicles with a police escort to the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv for an identification process which is expected to take up to 48 hours.
Shiri Bibas, 33 years old, was from Nir Oz. On the morning of October 7th, 2023, the Bibas family gathered in the bomb shelter after they heard the sirens. Until about 9:40 a.m., the father, Yarden, had been writing to his sister and family members telling them that the "situation is bad. By 10:00 Shiri and her two sons, nine-month-old Kfir and four-year-old Ariel, were abducted by terrorists on a quad bike. After that, the three were loaded onto a pickup truck which took them to the eastern part of Khan Yunis.
According to the information known to the IDF, they were held by terrorists from the Ktaib Mujahideen group. The footage of Shiri and the boys' abduction was published on the day of the massacre itself and the sight of young children being abducted set off shock waves. When the first hostage deal, which mostly included women and children, was signed, there was much hope that Shiri and her boys' names would be among those released, but they were not. After the disappointment, the extended family stated: "We are currently experiencing moments of great uncertainty. The understanding that we won't get the hug that we waited for, leaves us speechless."