Human Rights Voices

The bodies of four slain Israeli hostages were returned to Israel on Thursday, 503 days after they were abducted from their homes and dragged to Gaza on October 7, 2023, by Hamas-led terrorists.

Hamas had said earlier in the week that it was handing over the bodies of Shiri Silberman Bibas, her two young sons Ariel and Kfir, and Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 at the time of his abduction. All four were taken alive from their homes in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Hamas-led invasion and massacre in southern Israel.

The bodies were transferred to the Red Cross at around 9:30 a.m., in a propaganda-filled ceremony in the Bani Suheila area of southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, where the terror group set up a stage covered with propaganda posters in defiance of pleas for a more respectful affair.

From there, the Red Cross handed the caskets over to IDF troops inside the Gaza Strip and, following a brief military cemetery, a convoy carrying the coffins, now draped in Israeli flags, crossed the border into Israel just before midday.

Unlike the recent hostage release ceremonies in which the hostages were handed over to the Red Cross alive, most Israeli media outlets, including The Times of Israel, decided not to air the live footage from Khan Younis out of respect for the dead.

Ahead of the handover, live footage showed crowds of Palestinians waiting near the stage, as music blared in the background. Parked nearby were white pickup trucks, some of them draped in Hamas flags, reminiscent of the ones driven into Israel by invading Hamas terrorists on October 7.

Armed Hamas operatives were stationed among the crowd, many of them milling about freely.

Others could be seen off to one side hosting what appeared to be a makeshift weapons show for children and teens, allowing them to hold their guns and pose for photos and videos.

Meanwhile, footage from Israel showed that, unlike previous rounds of hostage releases, Hostages Square in Tel Aviv was mostly empty, with a scant few people braving the rainy weather. More people gathered in the square as the hours passed.

Rows of Israeli flags, with yellow ribbons intertwined with the Star of David, were tied to barriers.

Shortly before 9 a.m., a convoy of Red Cross vehicles started making its way to the stage in southern Khan Younis to pick up the bodies.

With its large propaganda posters and celebratory atmosphere, the public ceremony was a far cry from the private and dignified handover that the International Committee of the Red Cross had requested of the terror group.

As the Red Cross vehicles approached the stage, with some onlookers pushing and shoving their way through the crowds to get a closer look, terror operatives displayed four coffins, apparently containing the bodies of the slain Israeli hostages, which had been concealed behind a curtain.

On the stage, a large propaganda poster portraying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a vampire above pictures of the four hostages denounced Israel and blamed it for the deaths of the four. Hamas also displayed munitions allegedly used by Israel.

The coffins were labeled with a picture of each hostage, as well as a propaganda message. The Kfir and Ariel Bibas coffins had the names switched. A sign on the coffins claiming to hold the remains of Shiri Bibas and Lifshitz also featured their “date of arrest” — October 7, 2023, the day they were abducted from their homes.

The military had stressed ahead of time that all claims made by Hamas as to how the hostages died were unverified, and that the causes of death would be examined during the identification process.

In what appeared to be an attempt to protect the dignity of the slain hostages from the jostling crowds, Red Cross representatives held up small privacy screens as they received the caskets, although Hamas operatives walked in between them, taking photos as they worked. Live footage broadcast on Al Jazeera also showed the coffins being handed over.

As the Red Cross convoy departed the staged event to transfer the bodies to Israeli forces stationed in the Strip, the screens in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square — now much fuller than it had been earlier in the day — aired photos and videos of Lifshitz and the Bibas family from before October 7.

In one clip, Lifshitz could be seen playing the piano, and in another baby Kfir giggled as he played with his father Yarden.

Mournful music played across the square and a bunch of yellow and orange balloons, symbolizing the plight of the hostages and the recognizably bright red hair of the Bibas children, stood out against the grey sky.

Abducted alive 503 days ago

Shiri Silberman Bibas and her two young sons Ariel and Kfir, who were aged 4 years and 9 months respectively at the time of their abduction, were abducted from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion and massacre in southern Israel.

The three were abducted by members of the Mujahideen Brigades, a relatively small armed faction in the Gaza Strip, which is allied with Hamas.

The family’s father Yarden was abducted separately by Hamas terrorists after he left the safe room of their Nir Oz home in an attempt to distract the gunmen and save his family. He was freed from Gaza on February 1.

Footage from the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel showed Shiri Bibas clutching her redheaded sons as they were led away by Mujahideen Brigades gunmen. The IDF later released a video it found, showing them being moved at a Mujahideen Brigades post in Khan Younis that same day.

Their fate since then had remained unknown, and the Mujahideen Brigades and Hamas claimed in November 2023 that they had been killed in an IDF airstrike. Israel did not confirm the claim, which it said was cruel propaganda, but acknowledged that there were “grave concerns” for the young family.

Shiri’s parents, Margit Shnaider Silberman, 63, and her husband Yosef José Luis (Yossi) Silberman, 67, were killed at their Nir Oz home on October 7. They are survived by their daughter Dana.

Lifshitz was held captive by Palestinian Islamic Jihad after he was abducted from his Nir Oz home. His wife Yocheved was kidnapped separately, and released by Hamas 16 days later.

The couple, who were among the founders of Nir Oz, were lifelong peace activists and would regularly transport patients from Gaza to receive medical care in hospitals across Israel. Oded, a great-grandfather, was a journalist and a passionate advocate for human rights.

Military ceremony in Gaza

Upon receiving the four caskets apparently containing the bodies of the four slain hostages, IDF sappers conducted a security screening on them, the military said, to rule out the possibility that they were booby-trapped.

Israeli troops also checked that the locks on the caskets could be opened, so there would be no delays when the bodies were brought to a forensic institute in Tel Aviv for identification. The IDF said that all of the coffins could be opened.

The IDF also checked if any personal items belonging to the hostages were returned with the bodies.

The coffins were then draped in Israeli flags for a short military ceremony, led by IDF Chief Rabbi Brig. Gen. Eyal Karim, who read aloud Psalm 83 as troops saluted.

The mourner’s Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, was not recited at the ceremony because the bodies were not yet identified.

The caskets were then carried by IDF officers into waiting vehicles for the journey back to Israel for identification.

The vehicles carrying the slain hostages crossed into Israel minutes before midday.

Israelis line the streets

They were escorted in a convoy by the Israel Police to the Abu Kabir National Center of Forensic Medicine for identification, a process that Health Ministry officials said could take up to 48 hours.

Within a few hours, however, officials said, they would be able to update the families on how long it would take them to confirm the identities of their loved ones.

The Prime Minister’s Office said an official notice would be issued to the families following their identification, and asked the public to respect their privacy and refrain from spreading rumors.

“Our hearts go out to them at this difficult time,” the PMO said.

The streets leading to the forensic institute were lined by Israelis, including from the ravaged community of Nir Oz, holding flags and waiting to pay their respects.

Netanyahu was said to have briefly considered participating in the proceedings on the Israeli side of the Gaza border as the hostages were returned, and according to Channel 12, security arrangements were being put in place on Wednesday night to enable him to do so.

Later in the night, however, it was decided that he would not attend. Despite multiple invitations, Netanyahu has not visited Nir Oz since the massacre.

Sixty-six of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF.

In addition to the four bodies returned Thursday, Hamas has so far released 24 hostages — 14 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — during a ceasefire that began on January 19. Israel is releasing some 2,000 Palestinian terrorists and other detainees.

The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.

Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014.