Palestinian militant group Hamas fighters stand at attention ahead of the handing over the bodies of four Israeli hostages in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza on Feb. 20, 2025. (Credit: Eyad Baba/AFP)
Israel braced on Thursday for the return of the bodies of infant Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother Ariel, the two youngest captives taken by Hamas in their Oct. 7, 2023.
Palestinian militant groups said the bodies of the two boys and their mother Shiri Bibas, along with that of a fourth hostage, Oded Lifschitz, would be handed over on Thursday under the Gaza cease-fire agreement reached last month with the backing of the United States and the mediation of Qatar and Egypt.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a brief video statement that Thursday would be "a very difficult day for the state of Israel. An upsetting day, a day of grief."
Hamas said in November 2023 that the boys and their mother had been killed in an Israeli airstrike but their deaths were never confirmed by Israeli authorities.
Yarden Bibas was returned in an earlier exchange of hostages for prisoners this month. But the family said this week their "journey is not over" until they received final confirmation of what happened to the boys and their mother.
The handover will be the first return of dead bodies during the current agreement and Israel is not expected to confirm their identities until full DNA checks have been completed.
Humanitarian convoy reaches Rmeish, Ain Ibl, Dibil despite obstacles
