Body of Shiri Bibas not among returned hostages, Israeli military says
One of the four bodies released by militant group Hamas on Thursday was not mother Shiri Bibas, Israel's military has said, calling it a "violation of utmost severity".
Hamas claimed it handed over the bodies of four hostages, including the Bibas family: Shiri and her two sons, Ariel and Kfir.
In an overnight announcement, Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said that Ariel and Kfir had been identified, but the third body was not that of Shiri or any other hostage.
"This is an anonymous, unidentified body,” the IDF said, adding it had notified the family, including Shiri's husband Yarden Bibas, who was released earlier this month as part of the tenuous ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
Hamas have claimed that Bibas and her children were killed by an Israeli airstrike in the early days of the war, however Israel said testing confirmed the hostages were killed by the militant group.
Concerns for the safety of the Bibas family had kept growing since Hamas' attack on 7 October 2023, when they were all abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel.
Kfir, who was 9 months old when taken, was the youngest out of all the hostages.
The body of the fourth hostage was confirmed to be that of 85-year-old Oded Lifshitz, a journalist and activist for Palestinian rights, Israeli media said.
Speaking to CNN, US Envoy for Hostages Adam Boehler said that not returning Shiri's body was a "clear violation" of the ceasefire, which took hold in January.
“If I were them, I’d release everybody or they are going to face total annihilation,” Boehler said in a stark warning to Hamas.
The announcement on Friday came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to conduct a crackdown against "terror hubs" in the occupied West Bank after explosions rattled three parked buses in Bat Yam.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosions, which Israeli authorities said were a suspected terrorist attack.
Hamas was scheduled to release six more hostages on Saturday in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israeli forces. It is now unclear whether the scheduled swap will take place.
It is also unclear whether the truce, which halted 15 months of fighting, will be extended once its first phase ends in early March.
Negotiations for the second phase, which are expected to cover the return of around 60 remaining hostages in the Gaza Strip and a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops, were meant to begin in the coming days.