Remains returned by Hamas identified as Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas: family

Israel's Bibas family announced that remains returned to Israel the day before were identified to be of hostage Shiri Bibas, taken captive by Palestinian resistance group Hamas in October 2023.

The Israeli kibbutz community of Nir Oz had earlier Saturday announced Bibas's death, after the International Committee of the Red Cross said it had transferred more human remains to Israeli authorities without saying whose they were.

"After the identification process at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, this morning we received the news we feared the most, the Bibas family said in a statement, adding: "Despite our fears for their fate, we kept hoping we would get to hug them again, and now we are broken and grieving.

"For 16 months, we sought certainty, and now that we have it, there is no comfort in it, but we hope for the beginning of a closure," the family said.

On Thursday, Hamas handed over four bodies, saying they were of Shiri Bibas, her two young son, and an elderly hostage.

While the remains of her two sons and the elderly hostage were identified positively, Israeli authorities said the fourth body was not that of Shiri Bibas.

But on Friday, Hamas — which blamed a possible "mix-up" of bodies — handed over new remains to the Red Cross, which now have been identified to be that of Shiri Bibas.

Hamas has long maintained an Israeli air strike killed Bibas and her boys — Kfir and Ariel — early in the war.