Family confirms second body released by militants was Shiri Bibas

A body released by Palestinian militants overnight has been confirmed as Shiri Bibas, the Israeli mother whose two young sons also died in captivity, her family said.

Her body was released by militants on Friday after one set of remains handed over on Thursday had been misidentified as hers, but were later determined to be an unidentified Palestinian woman.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of a “cruel and malicious violation” of the ceasefire and vowed revenge.

With tensions rising, Palestinian militants late on on Friday said they turned over the correct set of remains to the Red Cross, which sent them to Israel for testing. The identification was confirmed early on Saturday.

Despite the anger, Israel and Hamas were moving ahead with another exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners on Saturday as part of the ceasefire.

Hamas was set to free six more Israeli hostages on Saturday from the Gaza Strip, but the exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners is shadowed by heightened tension between the adversaries that clouds the future of the fragile ceasefire deal.

As preparations moved forward on Friday, Mr Netanyahu vowed revenge for “a cruel and malicious violation” of the agreement centred on the wrong identification of a body released by Hamas.

Israel said its tests determined that the three hostages had been killed by their captors. Hamas has claimed Oded Lifshitz and Mrs Bibas’s two sons, Ariel and Kfir, were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.

Hamas said it would “conduct a thorough review” of information regarding the body and suggested that Israeli bombing of the area where hostages were held might have caused a mix-up of remains.

The group’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said it would go ahead with the release of the six Israeli hostages planned for Saturday.

The dispute over the body’s identity raised new doubt about the ceasefire deal, which has paused over 15 months of war but is nearing the end of its first phase.

Negotiations over a second phase, in which Hamas would release dozens more hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal, are likely to be even more difficult.

The six Israeli men set for release on Saturday are expected to be the last living hostages freed during the ceasefire’s first phase.

Eliya Cohen, 27, Omer Shem Tov, 22, and Omer Wenkert, 23, were abducted from a music festival during the October 7 attack. Tal Shoham, 40, who was taken from the community of Kibbutz Beeri, is also set to be released along with Avera Mengistu, 39, and Hisham Al-Sayed, 36, who have been held since crossing into Gaza on their own years ago.

More than 600 Palestinians jailed in Israel will be freed in exchange, the Palestinian prisoner’s media office said on Friday.

The prisoners set for release include 50 serving life sentences, 60 with long sentences, 47 who were released under a previous hostage-for-prisoner exchange and 445 prisoners from Gaza arrested since the war began.

Hamas has said it will also release four more bodies next week, completing the first phase of the ceasefire. If that plan is carried out, Hamas would retain about 60 hostages, about half of whom are believed to be alive.

Hamas has said it would not release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal.

Mr Netanyahu, with the full backing of the Trump administration in the US, says he is committed to destroying Hamas’ military and governing capacities and returning all the hostages, goals widely seen as mutually exclusive.

Published: 22/02/2025 by Radio NewsHub