The Japan Times - Bibas family says mother's remains home, ahead of Gaza hostage-prisoner swap

Bibas and her two young sons had become symbols of the ordeal suffered by Israeli hostages since the Gaza war began.

Palestinian militants seized dozens of captives during their unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which triggered more than 15 months of war in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas had said the mother's remains were among four bodies returned on Thursday, but Israeli analysis concluded they were not in fact hers, sparking an outpouring of grief and anger.

Hamas then admitted "the possibility of an error or mix-up of bodies", which it attributed to Israeli bombing of the area.

Late Friday the International Committee of the Red Cross had confirmed the transfer of more human remains to Israel "at the request of both parties" but did not say whose they were.

"After the identification process at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, this morning we received the news we feared the most. Our Shiri was murdered in captivity and has now returned home to her sons, husband, sister, and all her family to rest," the Bibas family said in a statement.

Earlier Saturday Bibas's kibbutz community, Nir Oz, had announced "the murder of Shiri Bibas."

On Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- under domestic pressure over his handling of the war and the hostages -- vowed to "ensure that Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and evil violation of the agreement".

He accused the Palestinian militant group of murdering young Ariel and Kfir Bibas.

Hamas affirmed its "full commitment" to the ongoing ceasefire deal, which has so far seen 19 living Israeli hostages freed from Gaza in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails.

The group's armed wing confirmed it would release six living Israelis Saturday in the latest swap since the ceasefire began.

- Two locations -

Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum has published the names of the six Israelis to be freed -- Eliya Cohen, Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Hisham al-Sayed and Avera Mengistu.

Sayed and Mengistu have been held in Gaza for around a decade.

The six are the last living hostages eligible for release under the truce deal's first phase, which is due to expire in early March. Hamas has also promised to hand over four more bodies next week.

A Hamas source told AFP that the Islamist group planned to release two hostages from Rafah, southern Gaza, and then four from Nuseirat in central Gaza later in the morning.

At both locations the militants prepared for a now well-rehearsed ceremony, building stages to parade the hostages to be released in front of large posters advertising its cause or praising fallen fighters.

The Red Cross has repeatedly appealed for handovers to take place in a dignified manner.

Under a cold winter rain in Rafah, Hamas fighters wearing military fatigues, balaclavas and Hamas headbands stood in a square around the space where the handover was to occur.

In a show of force after months of bombardment and strikes that killed the group's top leaders, some fighters held automatic weapons, others rocket launchers.

Hamas's green flag flew around the square on buildings destroyed by war in the Palestinian territory.

The Palestinian Prisoners' Club advocacy group said Israel would free 602 inmates on Saturday as part of the exchange.

A spokeswoman for the NGO told AFP that most were Gazans arrested after the war began. She added that 108 of the prisoners would be deported outside of Israel and the Palestinian territories after their release.

- 'No forgiveness' -

On Friday, Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said, after an analysis of the remains, that Palestinian militants had killed the Bibas boys "with their bare hands" in November 2023.

Hamas has long maintained an Israeli air strike killed them and their mother early in the war.

Shiri's sister-in-law, Ofri Bibas, said Friday that the family was "not seeking revenge right now", while levelling a measure of the blame at Netanyahu, telling him there would be "no forgiveness" for abandoning the mother and her young sons.

Hamas and its allies took 251 people hostage during the October 7 attack that sparked the war. There are 66 hostages still in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,215 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,319 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.

T.Kobayashi--JT