Hamas returned the bodies of four Israeli hostages on Thursday after a grim propaganda ceremony. In what NBC News reports is likely to be one of the defining images of the war, the caskets were displayed on a stage in front of a banner with photos of the hostages and a vampiric caricature of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Hamas said it was returning the bodies of Shiri Bibas, her two young sons, and Oded Lifshitz, said to be in his early to mid-80s. Ariel and Kfir Bibas, who were 4 years old and 9 months old when they were abducted, were the youngest hostages seized by Hamas in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
There were large crowds at the handover ceremony in Khan Younis, where Hamas militants stood on the stage behind missiles that were splattered with red paint. A sign on the missiles said, "They were killed by USA bombs." This is the first time Hamas has returned the bodies of hostages who died after they were taken to Gaza, CNN reports. Hamas has claimed that the three members of the Bibas family were killed by an Israeli airstrike about a month after they were abducted. Yarden Bibas, the children's father, was released earlier this month. He was reportedly held separately from the rest of the family.
Israel said the bodies will have to undergo forensic testing before identities can be confirmed. The Israeli government strongly condemned the handover ceremony, the Times of Israel reports. "Hamas is not a resistance movement. Hamas is a death cult that murders, that tortures and parades dead bodies," said government spokesman David Mencer. Netanyahu said he plans to "destroy the murderers and eliminate Hamas." (More Israeli hostages stories.)
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