Israel\u2019s Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Wednesday that it had received the \u201cheart-shattering news\u201d that Shiri Bibas and her two young children, Ariel and Kfir, are among the four dead hostages expected to be released from Gaza on Thursday. <\/p>\n
The body of Oded Lifshitz is also expected to be released on the same day, in what will be the first handover of dead hostages since the ceasefire deal with Hamas went into effect in January. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis news cuts like a knife through our hearts, the families\u2019 hearts and the hearts of people all over the world,\u201d the forum said in a statement. \u201cIt is with great sadness that we received the news of the return of Shiri, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, along with Oded Lifshitz, who were kidnapped alive and will return deceased for eternal rest in Israel.\u201d <\/p>\n
But the announcement of the names was overshadowed by the Bibas family\u2019s anger at the Israeli Prime Minister\u2019s Office, which they said had released the names without their approval. <\/p>\n
The forum later released a statement at the request of the Bibas family asking the public not to \u201ceulogize our loved ones until there is a confirmation after final identification.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a serious mistake in the conduct of the IDF liaison officers towards the Bibas family, which resulted from an unfortunate human error,\u201d the source said. <\/p>\n
Ahead of tomorrow\u2019s releases, Israel\u2019s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that \u201cmy own heart is torn,\u201d in a video address posted online Wednesday evening. <\/p>\n
\u201cTomorrow 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,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Netanyahu added: \u201cWe are grieving, we are in pain, but we are also determined to ensure that such a thing never happens again.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Bibas children, Kfir and Ariel, were just nine months and four years old, respectively, when they were kidnapped in October 2023. Their family has become one of the most recognizable victims of the October 7 terror attacks. <\/p>\n
Lifshitz was 83 years old when he and his wife Yocheved were kidnapped from their home in kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023. Yocheved was one of two hostages released by Hamas later that month, while Oded remained in captivity. <\/p>\n
The forum said in a statement Wednesday that \u201calong with the heavy sorrow, their return for burial creates certainty for their loved ones and closes the agonizing circle of uncertainty that has lasted for 502 days.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are another 69 abductees being held captive by Hamas, for whom there is still no release date,\u201d the forum said, adding that decision-makers should \u201cexpedite\u201d the negotiations. <\/p>\n
Lifshitz\u2019s family said in a statement that \u201cthese are not easy times for us, after we were informed that our beloved Oded is on the list of the hostages who will return to Israel tomorrow, after being kidnapped alive from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cFor 502 days we hoped and prayed for a different ending, but until we receive absolute certainty, our journey will not end, and even after that we will continue to fight until the last hostage is returned,\u201d the statement added. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Israel\u2019s Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Wednesday that it had received the \u201cheart-shattering news\u201d that Shiri Bibas and her two young children, Ariel and Kfir, are among the four dead hostages expected to be released from Gaza on Thursday. The body of Oded Lifshitz is also expected to be released on the same day,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}