Baby Kfir Bibas, his four-year-old brother Ariel, their mother Shiri, and Oded Lifshitz, 83, all of whom were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz by Hamas during the October 7 massacre, were returned to Israel in coffins on Thursday.
Local and global media blanketed the day with coverage, with both regional and foreign newscasters oftentimes struggling to contain their emotional reactions when faced with the likelihood that the Bibas children, who have become one of the most recognizable symbols of the around 250 hostages taken by Hamas, were dead.
By midafternoon, the L. Greenberg Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir confirmed that one of the bodies returned was that of Lifshitz, but at press time, confirmation for the Bibas family was still outstanding.
IDF officials had warned that some confirmations could arrive within hours – with the four being handed over by Hamas to the Red Cross, which handed them over to Israel by around noon on Thursday – but that the identification process could also take up to 48 hours.
Once the IDF and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) were in possession of the four deceased hostages, they recited prayers from the Book of Psalms and surrounded the coffins with Israeli flags as they were brought to the forensic institute for identification.
Large numbers of Israelis waited for the return of the hostages at a number of points throughout the country, braving the harsh rain and inclement weather conditions.
On Saturday, six living hostages and four more deceased hostages slated to be released in the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal are set to be returned by Hamas.
Included among the six living hostages will be Avera Mengisto and Hisham Al-Sayed, who Hamas has held hostage since 2014 and 2015, respectively.
Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, and Eliya Cohen are the other four hostages due to be released by Hamas, with all of them having been kidnapped by the terrorist group on October 7.
Also, over the weekend, Israel will release over 600 Palestinian security prisoners. Some of them are terrorists serving life sentences, while others are Gazans detained during the fighting in Gaza due to their involvement in the war or for some other security offense.
Initially, only three hostages were due to be released this Saturday, with the lion’s share of the remaining 33 hostages due to be freed on March 1, the 42nd day of the ceasefire and the day that the deal is supposed to move from the first phase into the second one.
Hamas campaigning to kickstart phase two
However, Hamas has been campaigning to kick-start the negotiations for the second stage to solidify its position in Gaza and, as such, agreed to speed up the exchange of hostages in the first phase while also offering to allow the Palestinian Authority and other Palestinian officials to take over civil control of Gaza.
To date, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected any outcome in Gaza that leaves Hamas or the PA in control – and he has received significant backing from US President Donald Trump.
However, American officials have also said that Trump wants to see the second phase of the deal progress and does not prefer a return to a war in Gaza.
Further, the Saudis, Egypt, the UAE, and others were due to hold a summit on Thursday to press forward with a plan to rehabilitate Gaza. Their plan would include the PA and would not insist on expelling Hamas from the area.
These parties are due to hold an even more prominent conference with the entire Arab League on March 4, days after the first phase is set to end, but possibly as the parties allow further time to negotiate about the parameters of the second phase and a postwar Gaza.