Hamas handed over the bodies of Israeli infant Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother Ariel on Thursday, the youngest captives taken in the October 7, 2023, attack. Their return, under a ceasefire deal, reignited deep sorrow as they had become symbols of the day’s devastating events.
Red Cross vehicles departed the Gaza Strip carrying four black coffins, each adorned with a small photograph of the hostages. Armed Hamas militants, clad in black and camouflage uniforms, stood guard around the handover site.
The United Nations' human rights chief, Volker Turk, condemned the display of the bodies as "abhorrent and cruel," stating it violated international law, which mandates dignity for both the deceased and their grieving families.
After the transfer, Israeli authorities scanned the coffins for explosives before transporting them into Israel. Along the rain-soaked roads near the Gaza border, mourners gathered to pay their respects. “We stand here together with broken hearts—the sky weeps with us,” said a woman identified as Efrat.
In Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, a solemn crowd assembled, many in tears. Israeli President Isaac Herzog voiced the nation’s anguish: “Agony. Pain. There are no words. Our hearts—an entire nation’s heart—are shattered.”
A militant stood beside a controversial poster depicting a man rooted in the ground above Israeli-flag-wrapped coffins, with a chilling message: "The Return of the War = The Return of Your Prisoners in Coffins."
Kfir, just nine months old at the time of the attack, was abducted along with his family from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Hamas had claimed in November 2023 that the Bibas boys and their mother, Shiri, had died in an Israeli airstrike, though Israeli authorities never confirmed this. Yarden Bibas, their father, was returned in a recent prisoner exchange.
Among the deceased handed over was 83-year-old Oded Lifschitz, a journalist and founding member of Nir Oz, abducted alongside his wife, Yocheved, who was released two weeks later. A vocal critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies, Lifschitz had once condemned Israel’s rejection of a two-state solution and the 2011 prisoner swap that freed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind behind the October 7 attack. Sinwar was later killed by Israeli forces during the Gaza conflict.
The handover marks the first return of deceased hostages under the ceasefire agreement, with full DNA identification pending. The attack on October 7 left approximately 1,200 Israelis dead, with 251 taken hostage. In response, Israel’s military campaign has killed around 48,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials, reducing much of Gaza to rubble.
Following Thursday’s grim exchange, six surviving hostages are set to be released on Saturday in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian detainees. Negotiations for a broader deal—including the release of 60 remaining hostages, fewer than half of whom are believed to be alive—alongside an Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza, are expected to begin soon.