MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Hamas hands over bodies of Argentine national and her two children

The Bibas family became a symbol of what Hamas terrorists are capable of

Israeli authorities confirmed Thursday that the four bodies handed over by the pro-Palestine terrorist organization Hamas to the Red Cross belonged to Argentine national Shiri Bibas (née Silberman) and her two children, Ariel and Kafir, who were 9 months and 4 years old at the time of their abduction on Oct. 7, 2023. Yarden Bibas, Shiri’s husband and the children’s father, was released on February 1, 2025, as part of the ceasefire. The fourth victim was Oded Lifshitz, an 84-year-old Israeli who had long fought for an understanding between the two peoples but was eventually “betrayed” by the Palestinians, according to his wife, who was released by Hamas 16 days after the incursion. All five had been kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz.

Read also: Body handed over not that of Shiri Bibas, post mortem reveals

In a gruesome ceremony, Hamas paraded the four coffins before thousands of Gazans with a propaganda mural blaming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claiming the deaths were caused by American bombs before the Red Cross relayed them to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), who brought them to the Abu Kabir forensics institute for identification. Next to the coffins were two missiles with a caption in English reading: “They were killed by American bombs.”

The Bibas family's kidnapping went viral worldwide, and their image was displayed on almost every billboard available. Mourning marches are scheduled in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, among other world capitals. People in Buenos Aires are requesting city authorities to rename the street “Palestina” and make it “Bibas.”

Thursday's handover was part of the first phase of a ceasefire that began January 19, 2025, during which Hamas has released 24 hostages so far. A Hamas official stated readiness to release all remaining hostages in a single batch in the second phase. In exchange, Israel has released hundreds of Palestinian prison inmates convicted of terrorism.

While Israel continues to investigate these deaths, Netanyahu expressed national grief, vowing to prevent future atrocities. The Bibas family’s story, alongside Lifshitz’s, has deeply impacted Israel and the world.

On the day of the raids, Yarden Bibas was wounded in the head and separated from his wife and two children. At that time, he was 34 and Shiri was 32.

Oded and Yocheved Lifshitz were lifelong peace activists and would regularly transport patients from Gaza to receive medical care in hospitals across Israel. Oded, a great-grandfather, was a journalist and a passionate advocate for human rights.

“We are bringing home four of our beloved abductees, who have fallen,” Netanyahu said in a video statement. “We embrace the families, and the heart of an entire nation is torn apart. My heart is torn. Yours is too. And the heart of the whole world should be torn as well because here we see who we are dealing with, what we are dealing with — monsters,” he went on. “We mourn, we hurt, but we are also determined to ensure that such a thing never happens again,” the Prime Minister added.