Hamas released what it said were the remains of Shiri Bibas and her two young children. But none of the returned bodies were a match for Ms. Bibas, according to the Israeli military.
The two tiny redheaded boys had captured the hearts of Israelis and became symbols of the long and emotional campaign for the release of the scores of hostages seized during the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
On Thursday, under gray, stormy skies, an anguished nation marked an unofficial day of mourning after Hamas handed over three black coffins that the group said bore the remains of Ariel Bibas, who was only 4 when he was taken captive to the Gaza Strip; his baby brother, Kfir Bibas, who was not even 9 months old at the time; and their mother, Shiri Bibas, who was 32.
A fourth coffin bore the remains of Oded Lifshitz, an octogenarian grandfather, a peace activist and a founder of the pastoral Israeli village of Nir Oz, near the border with Gaza, where he and the Bibas family resided.
All were alive when taken. And later it would be revealed that only three of the four were actually returned.
At a grotesque handover ceremony in Gaza on Thursday morning, with loud music blaring in the background, the coffins were put on display on a podium bearing images from family photos that were also used in Israel for hostage posters: Ariel in a little white polo shirt; Kfir with a wide, toothless grin clutching a bright pink cuddly toy; and Shiri Bibas, smiling and radiant before the family’s world fell in.
The masked gunmen, though, appeared to have mixed up the children’s pictures and names.
In the early hours of Friday morning, the Israeli military announced in a statement that the remains of Ariel and Kfir had been positively identified by Israel’s National Center of Forensic Medicine and the Israel police.