After 16 months of uncertainty, Hamas returned the bodies of four-year-old Ariel and nine-month-old Kfir Bibas, claiming they were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
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00:00This family became a symbol of the hostages held in Gaza.
00:03Israeli officers stood in solemn salute as the coffins of four Israeli hostages
00:08released by Hamas were returned.
00:10We hoped that they would come back alive, all of them.
00:14They were murdered.
00:15On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a deadly attack on Israel,
00:18taking hundreds of hostages.
00:20Among them was the Bibas family, 34-year-old Yadav,
00:23his 32-year-old wife Shiri,
00:25and their two sons, 4-year-old Ariel and 9-month-old Fir.
00:29For 16 months, their fate remained uncertain,
00:32this story becoming a powerful symbol of the hostage crisis.
00:35On 1 February 2025, Hamas released Yadav and Bibas,
00:38but his wife and children were never freed.
00:41Instead, Hamas handed over what they claimed were their remains,
00:44stating they had died in an Israeli airstrike while being held captive.
00:47However, Israeli intelligence and forensic findings
00:50concluded that the two young boys
00:52had been brutally murdered in captivity in November 2023.
00:55The remains of 9-month-old Fir Bibas
00:57and his 4-year-old brother Ariel
00:59were confirmed among those returned.
01:01However, the third body, believed to be their mother Shiri Bibas,
01:04did not match with any hostage,
01:06leaving her fate uncertain.
01:08The news of their deaths
01:09triggered an outpouring of grief in Israel.
01:11The heartbreaking sight of four cascades
01:13became one of the defining images of the war.
01:16The handover of bodies was part of a ceasefire deal
01:18that took effect on January 19, 2025.
01:21As part of the agreement,
01:22Israeli and Hamas exchanged 33 hostages
01:24for around 1,900 Palestinian prisoners.
01:27The Bibas family's story
01:28remains a devastating reminder of the human cost of war.