Body returned from Gaza is not Bibas mother, Israeli military says happymamay

The Israeli army said that one of the four bodies that returned from Gaza to Israel on Thursday is not a hostage of Sherry Pepas, as Hamas claimed.

The news that Sherry Pepas, 32, and her two sons, Ariel and Kfir, who were now five years old and two, had died in the flow of sadness in Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) informed the Bibas family that the bodies of their children were identified after their remains were given to Israel by Hamas on Thursday.

But the third body was not the body of their mother, as the Israeli Defense Army says.

He demanded that her body be returned with the other remaining hostages. Hamas has not yet commented on Israel’s demand.

“During the identification process, it was determined that the additional body that was received is the evil body BIBAS, and no congruence of any other hostage was found. This is an unlimited unknown body,” IDF was published on X.

“This is a violation of the utmost distress by the terrorist organization Hamas, which under the agreement is committed to returning four hostages available. We ask Hamas to the house with all our hostages.”

The Israeli Defense Army said that the two children “were brutally killed by terrorists in captivity in November 2023,” according to intelligence and criminal results. Hamas said that the children and their mother were killed in an Israeli bombing.

Sherry, Ariel and Kafir Pepas were 32 years old, four and nine months, when they were kidnapped during Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Yarden Pepas, 34, was released by Hamas on February 1.

Israel confirmed that the fourth body that returned on Thursday is the veteran activist, Oded Lifshitz.

It was agreed to issue hostages as part of the ceasefire deal that entered into force on January 19, and Israel confirmed that it expects eight bodies to be delivered.

The two sides agreed to exchange 33 hostages of about 1900 prisoners by the end of the first six weeks of the ceasefire.

Talks about progress to the next stage of the deal – the remaining hostages will be released and the war will end permanently – it was scheduled to start earlier this month but not started.

So far, twenty -eight hostages and more than 1,000 prisoners have been exchanged.

There are still sixty -six hostages captured on October 7 in Gaza. There are three other hostages, who have been taken more than a decade ago. It is believed that about half of all the hostages who are still in Gaza are alive.

About 1,200 people – most of them civilians – were killed in Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023 and 251 others returning to Gaza as hostages. Israel launched a huge military campaign against Hamas in response, which killed at least 4,829 Palestinians – as civilians – according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.

Also on Thursday, Three buses exploded in Bat Yam, south of Tel AvivIn what the Israeli police said it was a suspected terrorist attack.

They said that the devices in two other buses failed to explode, adding that “the large police forces are behind the scenes, looking for the suspects.” No victims were reported.

In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced that it had ordered the Israeli Defense Army to carry out an “intensive operation against terrorist centers” in the West Bank.