Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused of “abandoning” a mother and her two young children, who died in Hamas captivity in Gaza. In a blistering attack on the Israeli prime minister, relatives of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas said there was “no forgiveness” for the failures on Oct 7 and the subsequent failure to secure their loved ones’ release.
On Friday, Israel was reeling from the news that Hamas had handed over the body of an unknown woman in a casket purporting to contain the remains of Mrs Bibas, 33. The government accused the terror group of breaking the terms of the ceasefire deal, while also alleging that militants had murdered the three family members “with their bare hands” while holding them captive.
The criticism of Mr Netanyahu is potentially damaging as many in Israel still blame him for allowing Hamas to run rampant and for the slow pace of hostage releases. Ofri Bibas, the aunt of Kfir and Ariel, who at nine months and four years old were the youngest people to be kidnapped on Oct 7, said on Thursday: “We did not receive an apology from you at this painful moment.”.
Calling on Donald Trump to help secure the release of the remaining hostages, she said: “I’m sorry Luli, I’m sorry Firfir. You didn’t deserve any of this. We’ll miss you forever. And we won’t give up on Mon Shiri.”. However, Mr Trump appeared to provide Mr Netanyahu political cover on Friday, saying the prime minister is “not torn” on whether Israel commits to the deal’s next phase or goes back to war.
The US president told Fox News that Mr Netanyahu “wants to go in”. When asked if he would prefer Mr Netanyahu to implement the second phase of the hostage deal or fight Hamas, Mr Trump said: “I am [okay with Israel resuming the war if they choose].
“When you see what’s happening here, it’s a hard thing to say. You just wonder about the condition of the hostages they have. One group looked so bad, it looked like a concentration camp in Germany. “It’s a terrible, terrible thing,” he continued. “Sometimes you have to make a decision. It’s a decision that has to be made; it’s a rough one.”.
For his part, the Likud leader said in a statement: “The entire civilised world should condemn these murders”. “Who kidnaps a little boy and a baby and murders them?” he said. “Monsters. That’s who... I vow that I will not rest until the savages who executed our hostages are brought to justice.”.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said: “We are shaken to the core by the horrifying findings confirming the cruel and brutal murder of Ariel and Kfir Bibas – just innocent infants – at the hands of Hamas.”. However, with six living hostages slated for release on Saturday, the group also called on the government to “stand wisely” in response.
Ismail al-Thawabteh, one of the terror group’s senior officials, implied – as the group been doing since November 2023 – that Mrs Bibas had been killed by Israeli bombardment, saying that her body was “turned into pieces after apparently being mixed with other bodies under the rubble”.
However, his claim appears to be contradicted by Israel’s Abu Kabir forensic institute, where the bodies are being examined, which said that the body purporting to be the mother was in a condition whereby officials were able to determine definitively that it was actually that of another woman.
Hamas said it would investigate the matter, but in a different statement the group declared itself “surprised by the uproar”, accusing Mr Netanyahu of stoking the row for his own political ends. Hamas has also long claimed that the Bibas children were killed in an air strike alongside their mother.
But on Thursday, Daniel Hagari, the spokesman for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), said they had been deliberately murdered “in cold blood” with “bare hands” and that terrorists then “committed horrific acts to cover up these atrocities”. The IDF has previously said it believed the Bibas mother and children were captured and initially held by an affiliate terror group, rather than Hamas itself.
The Telegraph can now reveal a new intelligence assessment which concludes that the family were taken hostage by the Palestinian Mujahideen movement in Gaza, which can trace its lineage back to the Fatah movement, the party of Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
Ronen Solomon, an intelligence analyst, used open-source data to conclude that they were held by this group, many of whose senior members have now been killed or arrested by the IDF, rather than Hamas. The findings would appear to back up suggestions that were made in November 2023 that Hamas may never have had control of those hostages while they were alive.
Both the revelation that Shiri Bibas’s body was missing and the accusation of the murder of the two boys provoked international condemnation on Friday. Mike Waltz, the US national security advisor, said: “Hamas is one of the worst kinds of terrorist groups out there. They are no different than ISIS. They are no different than al-Qaeda, and they absolutely must be destroyed.”.
