Hamas Investigates Wrongful Delivery of Hostage Bodies, Hostage-Prisoner Swap Continues

JERUSALEM, FRIDAY — Hamas said Friday it was investigating the possible misidentification of the body of a hostage sent by Israel as part of a ceasefire deal in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened retaliation if Hamas failed to deliver the body of Shiri Bibas, which was swapped with another.

On Thursday (20/2/2025), Hamas was supposed to hand over the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two sons, Kfir and Ariel, along with the body of another hostage, Oded Lifshitz (83). Israeli authorities stated that the bodies of the two children were confirmed as Ariel and Kfir, as was the body of Lifshitz.

However, the body referred to as Shiri Bibas turned out to be someone else's. The body was also not identified as an Israeli hostage. Israeli specialists said the fourth body was that of another unidentified woman.

Shiri Bibas, her husband, Yarden Bibas, and their two sons, Kfir and Ariel, were kidnapped during a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Yarden Bibas was held separately from his wife and two children. He was released in early February as part of the first phase of the ceasefire.

Basem Naim, a member of Hamas's Political Bureau, acknowledged that unintentional mistakes could have occurred, especially as a result of the indiscriminate Israeli bombing that caused the bodies of Israeli hostages and Palestinians—thousands of whom are still buried in the rubble of collapsed buildings—to mix.

"We confirm that it is not in our interests or values to keep anyone's body or not to comply with the agreements or deals we signed," Naim said in a written statement.

Hamas separately said it would investigate the Israeli statement and announce the results. "Most likely the body of Mrs. Bibas was exchanged with the body of another woman who was also buried in the rubble of the building," a Hamas official who did not want to be identified told AFP news agency.

In response to the exchange of hostage bodies, Netanyahu vowed to take revenge on Hamas, which he considered to have violated the agreement by sending different bodies. "We will fight for the return of Shiri Bibas, dead or alive," Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu said the woman's body sent to Israel was identified as an adult woman from the Gaza Strip.

The incident put the implementation of the phase 1 ceasefire and the continuation of the phase 2 ceasefire talks in a dangerous condition. On Saturday (22/2/2025), six hostages were planned to be released alive.

In November 2023 Hamas said that there were children and their mothers among the hostages killed in an Israeli airstrike. A number of Hamas guards were also killed in the Israeli airstrike. Therefore, the Director of the Gaza Government Media Office Ismail al-Thawabta said that Netanyahu "must be held responsible for the deaths of her (Shiri Bibas) and her children (Kfir and Ariel)".

However, the Israeli military said that based on intelligence assessments and forensic analysis of the bodies of the Bibas children, there were indications that they were deliberately killed by their kidnappers.

A Hamas official said that through negotiators in November 2023 they had offered to return the bodies of three members of the Bibas family to Israel.

“The negotiators were informed that three members of the Bibas family were killed and offered to have their bodies returned to Israel. They were killed along with their bodyguards in an Israeli airstrike. However, at the time, Prime Minister Netanyahu rejected the offer,” the official said.

Negotiations between Hamas and Israel have been ongoing through three mediators, namely Qatar, Egypt and the US.

Shiri Bibas' brother-in-law, Ofri Bibas, said the Israeli authorities, especially Netanyahu, had failed to protect the hostages and abandoned them. "It is Israel's responsibility and obligation to bring them home alive," Ofri Bibas said in a statement released on behalf of the hostages' families through the Forum of Families of Hostages and Missing Persons group.

“There is no apology for ignoring them on October 7, and there is no apology for ignoring them while they were being held hostage. "Dear Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, we do not accept your apology for this heartbreaking incident," said Ofri Bibas.

“For the sake of Ariel and Kfir and Yarden, we are not demanding revenge at this time. What we are demanding is the return of Siri,” he continued. “The current atrocities only underscore the urgency of bringing Shiri back to us, rescuing the surviving hostages and bringing back all the bodies for burial.”

During the ceasefire that began on January 19, 2025, Hamas has released Israeli hostages in six waves, followed by the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Thursday's delivery of bodies was the first time Hamas has returned hostages killed in the Hamas-Israel war.

The exchange of Israeli and Palestinian hostages will continue on Saturday (22/2/2025). Hamas' military wing confirmed that they will release six live hostages from the Gaza Strip.

The Family Forum for Hostages and Missing Persons released the names of the six hostages, namely Eliya Cohen, Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Hisham al-Sayed, and Avera Mengistu.

Meanwhile, at the same time, Israel will release 602 detainees. According to Amani Sarahneh, the spokesperson for the Palestinian Prisoners Club group, among them are 445 Gaza residents who were arrested by the Israeli military following the October 7, 2023 attack, 60 individuals serving long-term sentences, 50 individuals serving life imprisonment, and 47 individuals who were re-arrested after being released in a prisoner exchange.

Sarahneh added that 108 prisoners would be deported outside Israel and the Palestinian territories.

In addition, Hamas also plans to send four hostage bodies next week to fulfill the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, which ends in early March 2025.

It is not yet known whether the first phase of the ceasefire will be extended if negotiations for the second phase of the ceasefire have not reached an agreement.

At a time when the hostage release and prisoner exchange were still in progress, an explosion occurred involving three buses parked in central Israel on Thursday night (20/2/2025).

There were no casualties in the blast and no one immediately claimed responsibility. The Israeli military said it was reinforcing its forces in the occupied West Bank.

There are fears of an escalation there as the Israeli military continues to launch military attacks in the West Bank while a ceasefire is in effect in the Gaza Strip.

If the hostage release and repatriation of bodies go according to plan, Hamas will still be holding 60 male hostages—half of whom are believed to have been killed in Israel's invasion of Gaza.

Hamas has said it will not release the remaining hostages without a permanent ceasefire and a complete Israeli military withdrawal. Meanwhile, Netanyahu, who has the full backing of US President Donald Trump, is determined to destroy Hamas' military and government capabilities and return all hostages.

Hamas accused Netanyahu of deliberately delaying the second phase of ceasefire negotiations after the return of four Israeli hostages' bodies. Hamas was supposed to arrive in Doha, Qatar, in early February 2025 to negotiate with Israel. However, at that time Israel was waiting for the results of the meeting between Netanyahu and Trump at the White House.

"The second phase of the ceasefire talks has practically not taken place. We are ready to negotiate according to the agreement. Netanyahu is deliberately delaying the negotiations," Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif Al-Qanou said in a written statement.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Tuesday (2/18/2025) that negotiations would begin this week to establish an agreement to end the war.

Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP news agency that Hamas was ready to release all hostages in the second phase of the ceasefire if everything went according to plan.

Hamas and Palestinian resistance factions in Gaza took some 250 Israelis hostage in an attack on October 7, 2023. The attack also resulted in 1,211 Israeli deaths—some due to mistaken Israeli military fire.

Israel's retaliatory attacks, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, resulted in 48,319 deaths in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children. The data was confirmed by the United Nations (UN).

As many as 90 percent of Gaza's population has become refugees, while 60 percent of the buildings there have been completely destroyed. (AP/AFP/REUTERS)