Terror group Hamas released the last batch of hostages agreed upon in the first phase of the ceasefire agreement with Israel on Saturday–a total of six–after they returned on Thursday what they claimed was the remains of Shiri Bibas, along with those of her children. There’s also some sad news from the Bibas family, which I’ll get to shortly.
via CNN:
Hamas released six hostages from Gaza on Saturday, handing over in two public ceremonies and one private transfer the final living captives whom the warring sides agreed would be freed when a ceasefire began last month. Israel was due to release 620 Palestinian detainees in return, but has delayed the exchange citing further security reviews.
A decision will be made regarding the continuation of the process after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convenes a security consultation on Saturday evening, an Israeli official told CNN. Hamas’ media office has accused Israel of violating the truce with the delay, casting some uncertainty over the precarious ceasefire deal.
Read related: NEW: What ‘Palestinians’ Did While Handing Over Murdered Bibas Babies Sparks Outrage, Calls to Resume War
Hamas Evil Never Stops: Body of ‘Returned Hostage’ Is Not Mother of Murdered Bibas Children
Authorities released these details on the hostages:
….Tal Shoham, 40, [was] turned over to Red Cross officials in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Shoham was kidnapped from kibbutz Be’eri, along with his two children, wife, and mother-in-law, all of whom were released in November 2023.
…
Later on, thousands, including Hamas fighters, gathered at a separate location, in Nuseirat, central Gaza, where three of the hostages – Eliya Cohen, 27, Omer Shem Tov, 22, and Omer Wenkert, 23 – were handed over in another heavily choreographed ceremony. A number of children appeared on the stage wearing shirts with photographs of Hamas leaders who had been killed.
The latter three men were seized from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023. But two other hostages had been held by Hamas for about a decade:
…[Avera Mengistu, 38], an Israeli from Ashkelon, crossed into Gaza in 2014.
…
Hisham al-Sayed, 37, an Arab-Israeli from a Bedouin community in southern Israel who walked into Gaza in 2015, was turned over to the Red Cross in Gaza City, according to an Israeli security source and a Hamas source.
Unsurprisingly, CNN reported that both men appeared to have “serious mental health conditions” after their long-term captivity by savage killers.
Back to the Bibas family. In the wake of the terrorists’ failure to hold to the agreement on returning four hostages, and “[t]he children’s remains [being] returned, along with the body of Oded Lifshitz, who was 83,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday:
May the sacred memory of Oded Lifshitz and Ariel and Kfir Bibas be etched in the heart of the nation forever. May God avenge their blood. And so will we.
He also “vowed to make Hamas pay ‘the full price’ following their mistake, calling it a ‘cruel and wicked violation’ of the ceasefire.” (The body that had been given by Hamas in place of Shiri Bibas’ body belonged to a Gazan woman.)
Now, there’s a heartbreaking update on Shiri, according to the CBS News story linked above:
Her family said the correct remains were handed over Friday night. The family said that the Israeli Institute of Forensic Medicine identified the remains as Bibas’. Details about memorial services will be shared later, the family said.
The Bring Them Home Now group’s X account shared the full statement from Shiri Bibas’ family on Friday evening:
It reads:
“Last night, our Shiri was returned home.
Following the identification process at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, we received this morning the news we had dreaded – our Shiri was murdered in captivity and has now returned home to her sons, husband, sister, and all her family for rest.
Despite our fears about their fate, we continued to hope that we would get to embrace them, and now we are in pain and heartbroken.
For 16 months we sought certainty, and now that it’s here, it brings no comfort, though we hope it marks the beginning of closure.
Shiri was a wonderful mother to Ariel and Kfir, a loving partner to Yarden, a devoted sister and aunt, and an amazing friend.
In this difficult hour, we continue to demand and call for the immediate return of the remaining hostages still in captivity. There is no more important goal. There can be no rehabilitation without them.
Details about the funeral and shiva will be published later.
Please give the family space to process and mourn.
Thank you all for the support and love during these 16 months.
If only Shiri could have seen it.”
This report on Hamas’ abhorrent treatment of the innocent people who remain in its clutches during Saturday’s hostage release says it all:
The post concludes with: “The two hostages are seen begging to also be released.”
Did you notice how the legacy media labeled the wrong person being returned to Israel and the Bibas family? They called it a “mistake” on the part of Hamas. When members of a group do things like this, it isn’t by accident. And despite what some on the Left would like to believe, Hamas finally doing what it promised to do as part of the deal will not make things right.
There are political consequences, which only Israel and Netanyahu can decide. There’s also the human cost to consider here. Not only was the ploy an unnecessary added indignity to Shiri, and cruelty towards all of the loved ones of the hostages, but it shows the world exactly who Hamas is.
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