Israel had long braced to learn the fate of Kfir Bibas, who was just shy of 9 months old when he was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with his parents, Yarden and Shiri, and brother Ariel, who was 4 at the time.
Pictures of Shiri and the children have come to symbolize the ordeal of the hostages seized in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel. Their bodies were handed over to the Red Cross earlier today.
Yarden, 35, was released on Feb. 1 under the first phase of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. He was held in a different part of Gaza than his wife and children, according to hostages who were with him in captivity and have since been freed.
In late 2023, Hamas said that Shiri Bibas and the children had been killed by Israeli bombardments. Israel has yet to confirm their deaths.
The Bibas family said Tuesday that they have been “in turmoil” over their slated return and that they were holding out hope they could still be alive. “Until we receive definitive confirmation, our journey is not over,” the family said in a statement.
