Israel on Wednesday confirmed that the list of four slain hostages to be returned to Israel on Thursday included Shiri Bibas, her two sons Ariel Bibas and Kfir Bibas, as well as Oded Lifshitz. In a video showing the kidnapping of the Bibas family on October 7, a Hamas terrorist can be heard saying while taking the family hostage, “Let no one harm her so that they know of our humanity." According to the Jerusalem Post, the video has been used by pro-Hamas radicals to falsely claim that Palestinian terrorists didn't want to harm women and children after they raped and murdered so many during the massacre.
Hamas built a stage near Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip for the transfer of the bodies of the mother, her five and two-year-old sons, and an 85-year-old man who was a retired journalist and peace activist.
The stage backdrop featured a banner showing pictures of Lifshitz and the Bibas family. Above them was an image of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu depicted as a vampire with blood running off teeth drawn to look like fangs.
In Arabic, English, and poor Hebrew, the banner read, "War criminal Netanyahu & his army killed them with missiles and Zionist warplanes." Another banner stated "The return of the war = the return of your prisoners in coffins," and, "Zionism Nazism in numbers."
Another banner celebrated “Al Aqsa Flood,” the name Palestinians gave to the October 7 terrorist massacre and incursion into Israel.
Local Gazans brought their children to watch the return of the bodies of murdered babies who suffered 503 days in Hamas captivity after being kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz. On Wednesday, the Red Cross, which has yet to visit the hostages in captivity, called for privacy before the release.
The caskets were brought onstage for a ceremony featuring representatives of the Red Cross and then paraded through the crowd to waiting vehicles. On the caskets of the hostages was written "Date of arrest, October 7th, 2023."
The Palestinians cheered and jeered as the bodies of children, their mother, and an old man were taken to waiting Red Cross vehicles, which took them to the Israeli Defense Forces inside the Gaza Strip. According to Israeli media, IDF soldiers searched the coffins for explosives and discovered that the keys given to them for the locks reportedly did not work. After a short ceremony honoring their lives, the caskets were draped with Israeli flags and taken to the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv for identification.
Thousands of Israelis standing in the rain lined the roads, holding Israel's flag and hostage ribbons.
The father of the Bibas children, Yarden Bibas, was released alive earlier this month as part of a hostage-prisoner swap during the current ceasefire. According to the Jerusalem Post, Palestinian terrorists who were released from Israeli jails in the current hostage-ceasefire deal were spotted in the crowd.
70 hostages remain prisoners of Hamas. Half are believed to be dead and Hamas is holding the bodies for ransom.
