On Friday, Israel’s Bibas family accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of failing to defend their loved ones during Hamas’ 2023 attack and bring them home.
The family’s words were their first since Israel announced that a body received from Hamas on Thursday was not Shiri Bibas‘, as claimed by the Palestinian militant group.
It was discovered that three other bodies were handed over: that of veteran peace campaigner Oded Lifshitz and Shiri’s two young boys, Kfir and Ariel.
Shiri’s sister-in-law, Ofri Bibas, claimed that Israeli authorities, particularly the prime minister, failed to protect and abandoned the hostages.
“It was Israel’s responsibility and obligation to bring them back alive,” she said in a statement released on Friday, February 21, 2025, on behalf of the family by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an Israeli campaign group.
“There is no forgiveness for abandoning them on October 7, nor for abandoning them while they are in captivity.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, we have not received an apology from you in this difficult time,” she remarked.
According to Hamas, the remains returned on Thursday included those of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, whose father Yarden was released in a hostage-prisoner swap earlier this month.
Israel confirmed the names of the two boys, but stated that the body claimed to be Shiri Bibas’ was not hers.
“My beloved nephews were kidnapped and murdered by a cruel terrorist organisation while in captivity. “They did not deserve such a fate,” Ofri Bibas stated.
“Our agonising path, which has already lasted 16 months, is far from done. The October 7 continues. We are still waiting for Shiri and are concerned about her situation. For the sake of Ariel and Kfir, as well as Yarden, we are not pursuing vengeance right now. We’re asking for Shiri. Their brutality just highlights the urgent necessity to bring Shiri back to us, save the lives of the living captives and return all the fallen for burial.”
Ofri Bibas urged US President Donald Trump to “help Israel and our family complete this important mission.”
Netanyahu accused Hamas of breaking the Gaza ceasefire agreement by failing to repatriate Shiri Bibas and instead placing “the body of a Gazan woman in a coffin.”
Hamas has long claimed that an Israeli air strike killed the boys and their mother early in the war, but Israeli officials accused on Friday that the boys were “murdered in captivity.”
Shiri Bibas and her two children, Ariel, who was four years old at the time, and Kfir, who was nine months old, have become symbols of Israel’s hostage situation since their abduction on October 7, 2023.
