As part of the ongoing ceasefire agreement aimed at ending the Gaza war, Hamas on Thursday handed over the bodies of four Israeli hostages, including a woman and her two children who were the youngest captives abducted by the Palestinian militant group as launched the unprecedented attack on the Jewish nation in October 2023.
The remains were those of Shiri Bibas (32), her sons Ariel (4) and Kfir; and Oded Lifshitz. While Kfir was nine-month-old when he was abducted along with his mother and brother, Lifshitz, a retired journalist and veteran peace activist, was 83.
In November 2023, Hamas announced that Shiri and her sons were killed in an Israeli airstrike without providing any other details of their death. The militant group also gave the same reason for Lifshitz’s killing.
Ahead of handing over the remains to the Red Cross, Hamas announced in a statement that it did “everything in (its) power to protect and preserve the lives” of the hostages.
The militant group alleged that Israel’s “brutal and continuous bombardment prevented them from being able to rescue all” the abductees
“You were a victim of a leadership that does not care about its children,” Hamas said in a direct message to the victims’ families.
