Face of the Day

Slain hostages Oded Lifshitz and brothers Ariel and Kfir Bibas were identified after their remains were returned to Israel by Hamas on Thursday, but the military said another body sent by the terror group was not the young boys’ mother Shiri Silberman Bibas.

Specialists at Abu Kabir Forensic Institute were not able to identify the fourth body, the Israel Defense Forces announced early Friday morning.

The shocking statement came after the return of the remains, in a propaganda-filled ceremony, had already sparked anger and mourning across Israel. Hostages’ families demanded the freeing of all the captives, alive and dead, still held by terror groups in Gaza, and leaders vowed to destroy Hamas.

The revelation that Shiri Bibas’s body had not been returned, as promised by Hamas, and that the body was not that of any other hostage either, left the future of the ongoing hostage-ceasefire deal looking more uncertain than ever.

“This is a very serious violation by the Hamas terrorist organization, which is required by the agreement to return four dead hostages,” said the IDF. “We demand that Hamas return Shiri home, along with all of our hostages.”

Times of Israel