Hamas on Friday mentioned it had turned over to the Purple Cross the physique of a lady that Hamas officers imagine belonged to Shiri Bibas, the Israeli mom whose seize together with her two younger sons through the Oct. 7, 2023, assault became a symbol of the nation’s anguish.
Ms. Bibas’s stays had been initially believed to should been repatriated to Israel on Thursday, with these of her two youngsters, as a part of a negotiated alternate for Palestinian prisoners. With a DNA take a look at, Israeli officers then decided the physique was that of one other individual and never Ms. Bibas.
“Tonight, on the request of the events, an ICRC staff obtained human stays, which had been then transferred to Israeli authorities,” The Worldwide Committee of the Purple Cross mentioned on Friday, including, “The ICRC can’t affirm any extra particulars.”
The Israeli army mentioned that information stories of the repatriation had been underneath assessment.
Mousa Abu Marzouk, head of Hamas’s overseas relations workplace, mentioned in a textual content message that the physique returned on Friday was believed to be that of Ms. Bibas. One other Hamas official, who requested anonymity to debate a delicate association, confirmed the handoff and equally mentioned it was Hamas’s understanding that they’d turned over the best physique this time.
A 3rd Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi informed the tv community Al Araby TV that Hamas had turned over stays of Ms. Bibas.
It was not instantly clear that Hamas had handed over the right physique on Friday.
Friday’s statements, lower than 24 hours after Hamas supplied Israel with the fallacious stays, had been the newest improvement in a series of crises which have made up the primary section of a cease-fire with Hamas. Up to now, 19 dwelling Israeli hostages have been traded for a whole bunch of Palestinian prisoners.
Regardless of recriminations from each side, the cease-fire has held for a month. And Hamas’s fast effort to search out and return the physique of Ms. Bibas was an indication that it didn’t need to bear accountability for endangering the settlement forward of the following switch, deliberate for Saturday.
On Thursday, Hamas mentioned it had handed over the stays of 4 hostages: Ms. Bibas, who on the time of her seize was 32; her two youngsters, Ariel, then 4, and Kfir Bibas, then 9 months; and Oded Lifshitz, 83. The handoff was staged in entrance of crowds in Khan Younis, and every casket bore a photograph of a hostage.
Israeli officers introduced the stays to a forensic institute in Tel Aviv, the place the identities of Ariel, Kfir and Mr. Lifshitz had been confirmed.
However early on Friday, Israel mentioned that one of many our bodies Hamas handed over was not that of Ms. Bibas. The Israeli army referred to as the discovering a “violation of the utmost severity” of the cease-fire. In an announcement, Hamas acknowledged the potential of a mistake or a “mixing up of corpses.”
The primary section of the cease-fire deal is ready to run out in lower than two weeks, and Israel and Hamas have but to agree on phrases to increase the settlement into the following section.
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