On Thursday, Hamas said that it has exchanged Palestinian captives for the remains of four Israelis who were kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023 raid on southern Israel, including a lady and her two small children.
The Hamas-staged handoff had drawn sizable crowds to the area around the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis. A platform with four black coffins, each with the picture of a dead captive, was surrounded by militants brandishing rifles.
The coffins were placed in white cars that were waiting by International Committee for the Red Cross officials. Later, the Red Cross handed them to Israeli soldiers inside Gaza who were waiting, according to confirmation from the Israeli authorities.
Israelis stared in terror and dismay from miles away.
Hamas has named the four deceased captives as Oded Lifshitz, 84, Shiri Bibas, 32, and her red-headed little children, Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 9 months. To verify their identities, the bodies are anticipated to go through forensic examinations in Israel.
Israel claims that all four were kidnapped during the Oct. 7 massacre, which claimed the lives of almost 1,200 people and took 250 captive. The intentional kidnapping of Ms. Bibas and her kids, in the eyes of many Israelis, summed up the savagery of the attack.
Soon afterward, Israel launched an unrelenting onslaught against Hamas in Gaza, killing tens of thousands of Palestinians and destroying a large portion of the territory.
Although Hamas has claimed that the four captives were murdered by Israeli bombings, it was not immediately apparent how they had perished. The cause of death has not yet been confirmed by Israeli officials.
Israel and Hamas agreed to halt the combat for a minimum of six weeks in late January. In exchange for more than 1,500 Palestinian detainees held by Israel, Hamas promised to release 25 Israeli hostages who were still alive and the remains of eight more.
Since then, returning Palestinian captives have hugged loved ones outside of jail for the first time in decades, leaving Israelis and Palestinians to witness heartwarming homecomings – hostages reunited with their families following a horrific year in Hamas’s underground tunnel network.
