Hamas Parades Dead Hostages, Angers World

THE NEWS

On February 20, 2025, Hamas staged a propaganda spectacle in Khan Yunis, Gaza, parading the bodies of four Israeli hostages in black coffins before handing them to the Red Cross.

The remains included three-year-old Kfir Bibas, his four-year-old brother Ariel, and peace activist Oded Lifshitz, 83. Israel later revealed one body was misidentified—not Shiri Bibas (the boys’ mother) but a Gazan woman—promising retaliation for Hamas’s “cruel and evil violation” of the ceasefire.

TIMELINE

October 7, 2023: Bibas family kidnapped

• Kfir Bibas, kidnapped at 9 months old, was the youngest hostage taken on October 7, 2023. Footage of his mother, Shiri, shielding him and Ariel became a symbol of Hamas’s brutality.

• Oded Lifshitz, a journalist and peace advocate, worked for decades to improve Palestinian rights. His wife, Yocheved, was freed in 2023.

November 2023: Bibas family killed

• Hamas initially announced the deaths of the Bibas family members in November 2023. At that time, Hamas claimed that Shiri Bibas and her two sons, Ariel and Kfir, had perished in an Israeli airstrike.

February 1, 2025: Father Yarden Bibas released

• The boys' father, Yarden Bibas, was released as part of the hostage return agreement.

February 20, 2025: Bodies of Kfir, Ariel Bibas released

• Hamas stages a ceremony in Khan Yunis, displaying four coffins on a stage adorned with anti-Israel banners, including one depicting Prime Minister Netanyahu as a vampire. Crowds cheer as militants sign documents with Red Cross officials.

• Israel receives the bodies, transports them to Tel Aviv for forensic analysis, and confirms three identities: Kfir, Ariel, and Lifshitz. The fourth body is identified as a Gazan woman, not Shiri Bibas.

• Available intelligence and forensic evidence from the identification process have led officials to determine that the two children were brutally murdered in captivity by Gaza terrorists in November 2023, just a month after their abduction, and were not killed by an IAF strike, as Hamas originally claimed.

• Netanyahu vows revenge, calling Hamas’s actions “unspeakably cynical.” The IDF accuses Hamas of a “serious violation” of the ceasefire terms.

REACTIONS

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk: "The parading of bodies flies in the face of international law. Returns must be conducted with dignity.”

Benjamin Netanyahu: "The State of Israel bows its head to two small children, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, and to Oded Lipshitz, one of the founders of Kibbutz Nir Oz. All three were murdered with terrible cruelty in Hamas captivity in the first weeks of the war."

Isaac Herzog (President): “Our hearts lie in tatters. We failed to protect you.”

Ruby Chen (Hostage Family Member): “This is acid poured on an open wound. The world must act.”

WHAT’S NEXT

Israel will identify the fourth body and confirm causes of death.

Hamas plans to release six living hostages on February 22 and four more bodies next week. Netanyahu faces pressure to extend the truce.