‘Unspeakably evil’: Kfir, Ariel Bibas were brutally murdered in Gaza captivity, not by IAF strike and Hamas did not return Shiri Bibas, sent anonymous body, IDF confirms.

From The Jerusalem Post, here and here. And Ynet News

The IDF confirmed on Friday morning that the hostage remains released on Thursday belonged to Ariel and Kfir Bibas. However, the third body “was not that of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other hostage. It is an anonymous body without identification,” the military stated.

“This is a very serious violation by the Hamas terrorist organization, which is required by the agreement to return four dead hostages. We demand that Hamas return Shiri home along with all our hostages,” the military added.

The IDF said that forensic officials carried out several tests on the anonymous woman’s body to ensure the result’s accuracy, Army Radio reported, adding that the body was received in “a condition in which it could be clearly verified it does not belong to Shiri Bibas.”

The military identified Oded Lifshitz, who was among the four slain returned hostages on Thursday, before confirming the identities of Ariel and Kfir Bibas.

Official identification has linked the remains of two of the slain Israeli hostages returned to Israel on Thursday from captivity as belonging to Kfir and Ariel Bibas, the IDF confirmed early Friday morning, alongside a report on forensic findings of the case.

Available intelligence and forensic evidence from the identification process have led officials to determine that the two children were brutally murdered in captivity by Gaza terrorists in November 2023, just a month after their abduction, and were not killed by an IAF strike, as Hamas originally claimed.

The two boys were aged nine months and four years old, respectively, at the time of their abduction on October 7, 2023. The bodies were identified using forensic analysis in an interdepartmental collaboration between the National Institute of Forensic Medicine and the Israel Police.

Kfir Bibas was murdered at 10 months old. Ariel was murdered at four years old. “Ariel was identified first, followed by Kfir,” military officials said. “The certainty of identification was immediate, and we can confirm with absolute certainty that both were brutally murdered in captivity. This conclusion is also supported by intelligence findings.”

The IDF also said that the Bibas family was held by a radical Salafi-jihadist group known as “Lords of the Wilderness”, (Al-Mujahedeen) which is not directly affiliated with Hamas but operates in Gaza.

Al-Mujahedeen was founded at the start of the Second Intifada in 2001, breaking away from Fatah. It initially operated as a faction of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades before becoming an independent militant group. The organization follows a radical Salafi ideology, which seeks to return to what it considers the fundamental roots of Islam, advocating extreme measures to achieve its goals.

Hamas has reiterated its claim that Shiri Bibas was killed by Israeli military action, saying that her body was “turned into pieces after apparently being mixed with other bodies under the rubble”.

Ismail al-Thawabteh, one of the terror group’s senior officials, made the claim to Reuters on Friday in response to mounting international disgust at the group’s conduct.

However, his claim appears to be contradicted by Israel’s Abu Kabir forensic institute, where the bodies are being examined, which said that the body purporting to be the mother-of-two was in a condition whereby officials were able to determine definitively that it was actually that of another woman.

They said the corpse was dressed in clothing, which appears to contradict the Hamas claim that the remains were “turned into pieces”.

Hamas said today it would look into the possibility of an error or that human remains were mixed due to Israeli air strikes. . . . saying it was “surprised by the uproar,” in an official statement on Friday.

“We received through intermediaries Israel’s claims regarding the body of Shiri Bibas, and will examine them very severely. We point out the possibility of a mistake in the bodies and confusion between the bodies,” a Hamas official said. It also said, if it found Israel’s results to be true, it would “call for the return of the body that the occupation claims belongs to a Palestinian woman.”