Deceased captive Shiri Bibas remembered as devoted mother as remains identified
Shiri Bibas has been remembered as a devoted mother and active participant in the Kibbutz Nir Oz community in Israel.
A spokesperson for the kibbutz issued the statement as forensic experts confirmed remains returned to Israel from Gaza on Friday belonged to Shiri Bibas, saying Bibas and her two young children were murdered after being taken captive.
The statement recalled Bibas and her two children, saying they “loved their home in Nir Oz, the balcony and the grass where they spent countless happy moments as a family”.
It also noted that Bibas’s parents were also killed in the October 7 attack.
“Today, after 16 unbearably difficult months, the painful circle is definitely closed for the family and in the coming days she will return together with her two small sons to eternal rest in the land of Israel,” it said.
Hamas rejects claims that Bibas family was killed by captors
The Palestinian group has called Israel’s claims “sheer lies” after the Israeli military alleged that Israeli child captives Ariel and Kfir Bibas were killed by their captors.
“[The claim] is a desperate attempt to evade the responsibility of its criminal army for the killing of the family,” a Hamas statement said.
Hamas said the Bibas family was killed as a result of “the genocide, the brutal bombing, the widespread destruction of buildings and neighbourhoods, and the war criminal Netanyahu’s obstruction of the ceasefire agreement”.
Hamas returned the remains of the two children and their mother to Israel on Thursday and Friday.
The group claims the mother and her children were killed in an Israeli bombing of the building where they were held in Gaza.
Israel provided no details on killing of Bibas captives: Family
Israeli authorities have not provided relatives with any details regarding the killing of the three Bibas captives after they were taken to Gaza during the October 7 attack by Hamas fighters, according to the family.
“Any publication of details (including references to the treatment of the bodies) is against the family’s wishes, and we ask that this be avoided,” a statement by the family said.
“The family has not received any such details from official sources,” it added, following an Israeli military announcement that the two young sons of captive Shiri Bibas were killed by “terrorists with their bare hands”.
“Any such publication adds deep pain to the family at this time.”
Shiri Bibas and her two sons, Kfir and Ariel, were seized by fighters on the day of the attack, and their bodies were handed over by Hamas to the Red Cross this week.
