Just what happened to Shiri Bibas and her two children after they were kidnapped on October 7, 2023, has become a source of torment for their family and millions of Israelis.
The two boys and their mother were not released from Gaza during the temporary truce in late November 2023, even though the deal agreed between Israel and Hamas called for all women and children to be set free.
The Bibas family clung to hope that they might still be alive even though Hamas announced on November 29, 2023, that they had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. The message from the military wing of Hamas merely said that it “announces the killing of 3 Zionist detainees as a result of a previous Zionist bombing of the Gaza Strip.” No evidence was produced, and the Israeli government said it was looking into the claim but never confirmed it.
It was unclear where in Gaza Shiri and her two sons, Kfir and Ariel, were being held at the time. Hamas did not produce evidence of their deaths. But a few days later, the group released a video of Shiri’s husband, Yarden Bibas, also a hostage at that time, in which he blamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the death of his wife and two children.
Yarden appeared to be in extreme distress in the video and was very likely speaking under duress.
When the family was abducted from kibbutz Nir Oz, Yarden was taken separately from Shiri and their two children. Footage of his capture was released in April 2024, showing him being taken to Gaza on a motorcycle, his face bloodied.
Another hostage, Nili Margalit, who was held with Yarden Bibas, disclosed last year that she was with him when Hamas told him that his wife and two young children had been killed and ordered him to film the video. Later that day, November 30, she was released as part of a ceasefire deal that lasted a week.
It is clear that Shiri Bibas and her sons were still alive when taken into Gaza. In February last year, the Israeli military released a video clip from October 7 that was recovered from surveillance cameras in Khan Younis in southern Gaza and showed Shiri holding Ariel and Kfir, who were then 4 years and 9 months old respectively.
Upon releasing the video, the IDF said it did not have enough information to confirm whether they were still alive.
Nor is it entirely clear which group held Shiri Bibas and her sons, and at which time. Israel said the surveillance footage was taken from cameras at a site belonging to the Mujahideen Brigades, a militant faction allied to Hamas.
In November 2023, the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichai Adraee, said Shiri and her sons were not always with the same group.
“Hamas treats them as if they were prey and sometimes hands them over to other terrorist organizations present in the Gaza Strip,” he said on X.
Adraee added they were “being held in the Khan Younis area by one of the Palestinian factions.”
But throughout last year, no more came to light of their fate. In June 2024, former cabinet minister Benny Gantz said he believed Israel knew the fate of Shiri and her sons but would not confirm the details.
In an interview with Kan 11, Gantz said: “I think yes,” when asked if Israel knew the fate of the Bibas family.
But neither the government nor the military ever confirmed what had happened to them.
Yarden Bibas was released earlier this month. Two weeks later, Hamas announced it would be releasing the bodies of Shiri and the children.
Now, Shiri remains unaccounted for. The body that was said to be hers is instead that of an unidentified “Gazan woman,” according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
On Friday, Hamas spoke about “the possibility of an error or overlap in the bodies, which may have resulted from the occupation targeting and bombing the place where the family was with other Palestinians.”