By Aaron Boxerman and Rawan Sheikh Ahmad
Hamas handed over on Thursday what it said were the remains of four Israelis taken hostage during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, including a woman and her two young children whose abduction was widely seen as emblematic of the viciousness of the Hamas assault.
Crowds of Palestinians gathered near the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis to watch the theatrical handoff staged by Hamas: four coffins placed on a stage in front of a cartoonish, vampiric picture of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Triumphant music thumped in the background.
One casket bore a picture of Kfir Bibas, who was less than 9 months old when he was kidnapped. A few yards away, a poster threatened that if Israel went back to war against Hamas, even more hostages would return in coffins.
Miles away, Israelis watched the scene unfold in horror and anguish, a sharp contrast to the catharsis evoked by the recent releases of hostages who had survived. Israel’s leaders had vowed to topple Hamas and bring home the roughly 250 hostages the militant group and its allies abducted in October 2023.
But some of those taken captive are now coming home dead.
Critics in Israel say Netanyahu shares at least part of the blame, arguing that he pressed on with his campaign against Hamas rather than agreeing earlier to a ceasefire that would have saved some lives.
And despite more than a year of devastating war, Hamas’ show of force at the exchange demonstrated that the group was still very much in charge in Gaza. Scores of gunmen — most clad in green Hamas headbands — patrolled the area around the handoff.
On Thursday, the coffins containing remains were the latest props.
Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, called the display “abhorrent and cruel,” adding that it “flies in the face of international law.”
Hamas identified the four dead as Shiri Bibas and her children, Ariel and Kfir, and Oded Lifshitz. When they were kidnapped, Bibas was 32, Ariel was 4 and Kfir was less than 9 months old; Lifshitz was 83. All four were from Nir Oz, an Israeli community which saw roughly a quarter of its 400 residents killed or kidnapped in the Hamas attack.
The Hamas-led surprise attack killed about 1,200 people, including Bibas’ parents, according to Israel. Israel’s relentless campaign against Hamas in Gaza quickly followed, killing tens of thousands of Palestinians and leaving much of the enclave in ruins.
Hamas said the four people whose remains were returned Thursday were killed by Israeli airstrikes, which Israel has not confirmed.
Israel’s main forensic institute said Thursday evening that Lifshitz’s body was inside one of the coffins but experts were still examining the others.
Israel and Hamas are now in the final weeks of a 42-day ceasefire that began in mid-January. As part of the truce, Hamas agreed to turn over 25 living Israeli hostages and the bodies of eight others in exchange for more than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
In exchange for the bodies, Israel is expected to free women and minors from Gaza who were detained during the war, generally without formal charges.
Two Israeli officials said the Palestinian detainees were expected to be freed Saturday, in part to allow time for Israel to conduct forensic testing and identify the returned bodies. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
As rain trickled down, officials with the International Committee of the Red Cross — which has served as the go-between during the exchanges — placed the four coffins in white vehicles. Israel later confirmed that they had brought the boxes to Israeli forces.
In Israel, right-wing politicians, including Netanyahu, reiterated furious calls for revenge against Hamas. Others saw the return of the bodies as another sign of how important it was to immediately bring home the remaining captives.
“Next to the sadness, it underlined to me that the most critical thing now is to bring them all back,” said Bar Goren, 24, whose parents were both killed in the attack on Nir Oz. “Everyone deserves this closure.”
Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president, said “there are no words” for the agony of seeing the coffins. Many Israelis are now familiar with the names and faces of the hostages, whose images have been ubiquitous in the country since their abduction.
“Our hearts — the hearts of an entire nation — lie in tatters,” Herzog wrote on social media. “On behalf of the State of Israel, I bow my head and ask for forgiveness. Forgiveness for not protecting you on that terrible day. Forgiveness for not bringing you home safely.”
Bibas’ husband, Yarden Bibas, was also abducted. In footage from the scene that is now seared into Israel’s national memory, a terrified Shiri Bibas — covered with a blanket — could be seen clutching Ariel and Kfir to her chest as she is taken away by armed militants.
In November 2023, Hamas published a statement announcing the deaths of Bibas and the two children. The group also published a propaganda video featuring a sobbing Yarden Bibas, while still in captivity, responding to the news. Human rights groups have said such videos amount to war crimes.
Yarden Bibas was freed in early February as part of the ongoing ceasefire agreement.
Lifshitz, a retired journalist, was taken alongside his wife, Yocheved Lifshitz. Hamas later freed her for what it said were “humanitarian reasons” but refused to release her husband. Before the war, Oded Lifshitz had volunteered to drive Palestinians from Gaza seeking medical treatment in Israel to hospitals.
Both Israelis and Palestinians have seen emotional homecomings in recent weeks. Israeli hostages, many of them thin and pale, reunited with their families after many months in Hamas’ warren of underground tunnels.
And Palestinian prisoners — some of whom also emerged from Israeli jails appearing gaunt — also embraced loved ones. Some had been serving life sentences for deadly attacks against Israelis, while many others had not been charged with any crime.
On Saturday, Hamas is expected to free the last six living hostages covered in the first phase of the ceasefire in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners. The remains of four others will be released the following weekend.
But the future of the truce after the first stage, which is set to expire in early March, is still shrouded in uncertainty.
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