Hamas will hand over the dead bodies of four Israeli hostages on Thursday, including the two youngest individuals held by the terrorist group, Kfir and Ariel Bibas.
Israeli society had rallied around the Bibas family — parents Shiri and Yarden, Kfir, who was less than one year old, and Ariel, who was 4-years-old at the time they were kidnapped — who symbolized the indiscriminate nature of Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023 assault. Shiri Bibas' body will also be returned on Thursday, while Yarden Bibas is alive and was freed from Hamas captivity earlier this month.
Hamas had claimed that the Bibas family was killed in an Israeli airstrike in November 2023, but Israelis remained hopeful that the young family would return alive.
Hamas has also said it would give up the body of Oded Lifshitz on Thursday. Israel is expected to release Palestinian prisoners and detainees in exchange for the bodies.
"Tomorrow will be a very difficult day for the State of Israel. A wrenching day, a day of grief. We are bringing home four of our beloved hostages, deceased," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday. "We embrace the families, and the heart of the entire nation is torn. My own heart is torn. So is yours. And all of the world's heart should be torn because this demonstrates who we are dealing with, what we are dealing with — with such monsters."
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an advocacy group made up of the families of the captives and their supporters, said the news "cuts like a knife through our hearts, the families’ hearts and the hearts of people all over the world."
The Bibas family lived in the border community of Nir Oz, which Hamas invaded. Roughly a quarter of the 400 residents were either killed or taken hostage.
Hamas took about 250 people hostage during its Oct. 7, 2023, attack that also resulted in the killing of approximately 1,200 other individuals. Hamas held roughly 100 at the start of the current ceasefire agreement that went into effect last month.
The group announced it would release six living hostages this weekend.
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This current ceasefire agreement, which is set to expire at the beginning of next month if it's not extended or if both sides can't come together to agree on the second phase of the deal, calls for Hamas to release 33 hostages in exchange for more than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners.
Officials indicated that 25 of the 33 hostages who would be returned during this phase were alive.