Israel denounces Hamas as 'monsters' for staging of hostage bodies handover

TEL AVIV: Israel denounced Hamas as "monsters" on Thursday (Feb 20) after the Palestinian militant group staged a handover ceremony in Gaza for the bodies of four hostages, who they said included Shiri Bibas and her two young sons.

The United Nations also slammed what it called the "abhorrent and cruel" staging of the event, which it said "flies in the face of international law", calling for future handovers to be done in private.

This was the first handover of dead hostages under a fragile ceasefire that so far had only seen living captives exchanged for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

The ceremony to return the bodies of Shiri, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, alongside a fourth hostage, Oded Lifshitz, took place at a former cemetery in the southern Gazan city of Khan Yunis.

Ahead of the handover, Hamas and members of other armed Palestinian groups displayed four black coffins on a stage.  

Each casket bore a small photo of the deceased, while mock-up missiles nearby carried the message: "They were killed by USA bombs," a reference to Israel's top military supplier.

Hamas said an Israeli air strike killed the Bibas family early in the war, but Israel has never confirmed the claim.

"We are all enraged at the monsters of Hamas," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video message, vowing again to destroy the group.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said: "Until the very end, the families of the hostages are exposed to Hamas's limitless terror."

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has facilitated the hostage and prisoner releases so far, called for handovers of bodies "to be done privately out of utmost respect for the deceased and those left grieving".

THE YOUNGEST HOSTAGE

Flag-waving Israelis lined the route along which a convoy carrying the bodies travelled from southern Israel to Tel Aviv.

Among those waiting at "Hostages Square" in Tel Aviv was museum manager Tania Coen Uzzielli, 59.

"This is one of the hardest days, I think, since October 7," she said, adding that "maybe we didn't do enough to prevent this tragedy".

Later, thousands in the square held a minute's silence to commemorate the four deceased hostages.

The National Institute of Forensic Medicine, where the bodies were taken, confirmed that Lifshitz - 83 at the time of his capture and a veteran journalist and peace activist - was among the bodies handed over.

It did not confirm the identities of the other three, however, saying on Thursday evening that it "continues the identification process".

Hamas said in a statement that it and its armed wing "did everything in their power to protect the prisoners (hostages) and preserve their lives, but the barbaric and continuous bombing by the occupation prevented them from being able to save all".

Tahani Fayad, 40, was among the hundreds of people gathered to witness the handover ceremony in Gaza, which she called "a confirmation of the victory of the Palestinian people and proof that the occupation will not defeat us".

During their Oct 7, 2023 attack that triggered the Gaza war, Hamas filmed and later broadcast footage showing the Bibas family's abduction from their home near the Gaza border.

Ariel was then aged four, while Kfir was the youngest hostage at just nine months old.

Yarden Bibas, the boys' father and Shiri's husband, was abducted separately and released in a previous hostage-prisoner swap on Feb 1.

The bodies' repatriation is part of the six-week initial phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which took effect on Jan 19.

Under the first phase, militants have so far freed 19 living Israeli hostages in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners.

Of the remaining 14 Gaza hostages eligible for release under phase one, Israel says eight are dead.

UNDER STRAIN

Israel and Hamas announced a deal earlier this week for the return of the eight hostages' remains in two groups this week and next, as well as the release of the six living Israeli captives on Saturday.

Palestinian prisoners are also set to be freed in Saturday's swap but were not part of Thursday's handover.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has said talks will begin this week on the truce's second phase, aiming to lay out a more permanent end to the war.

A Hamas spokesman on Thursday accused Netanyahu of "procrastinating regarding the second phase", saying the group was "ready to engage".

Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP on Wednesday that Hamas was ready to free all remaining hostages held in Gaza in a single swap during phase two.

Hamas and its allies took 251 people hostage during the October 7 attack. Prior to Thursday's handover, there were 70 hostages still in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.

That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,319 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.