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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has said hostage Oded Lifshitz, whose body was handed over by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Thursday, was killed in captivity by the Islamic Jihad militant group.
"Following the completion of the identification process by the National Centre for Forensic Medicine and the Israeli police, IDF representatives recently informed the Lifshitz family that their loved one, the late Oded Lifshitz, was murdered in captivity by the terrorist organisation PIJ (Palestinian Islamic Jihad) and was repatriated for burial in Israel," the office said in a statement. "We share the family's grief at this difficult time," it added.
The family of Israeli captive Oded Lifshitz has identified his body, the first of the four that were handed over by Hamas on Thursday morning as part of the ceasefire deal which for the first time involved dead hostages. A statement released by the family said: "Five hundred and three agonising days of uncertainty have come to an end. We had hoped and prayed so much for a different outcome."
Along with Mr Lifshitz, the released bodies included the Bibas family – two children and their mother who have become symbols of the hostage crisis in Israel. Their remains are still to be officially identified.
Shiri Bibas and her two young boys – Ariel, who was four at the time, and Kfir, who was about nine months old – were taken from their homes in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023. On Thursday their bodies were handed over to the Red Cross in the southern city of Khan Younis, along with Mr Lifshitz, who was 83 at the time of his kidnapping,
The Bibas family were captured separately from the father, Yarden, who was freed from Gaza on February 1. Israelis lined the streets with national flags and sang the national anthem on Thursday as the convoy brought back the bodies. A large memorial is planned in Tel Aviv for the evening, during which demonstrators will also demand all remaining hostages are released.
Israel's Health Minister Uriel Busso earlier told news station Channel 12 that the process to identify the bodies and establish causes of death could take some time. Israel's military said it had completed security screening of the coffins, amid reported fears that they might be booby trapped.
Politicians in the country widely condemned Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was united in "pain that is mixed with rage" and vowed that the country would "settle the score with the vile murderers".
The far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said Hamas "deserves no humanitarian aid. No fuel. No electricity. No caravans. No bulldozers. No ceasefire, no withdrawal. Only the gates of hell!" Israeli President Isaac Herzog said "I bow my head and ask for forgiveness ... forgiveness for not protecting you on that terrible day," shortly after it was announced the Israeli military had received the bodies.
The bodies were handed over by Hamas to the Red Cross, which then transferred them to Israeli forces inside the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military held a ceremony in the enclave on receiving the remains. Hamas had previously said the hostages were killed in Israeli strikes earlier in the war.
Hamas agreed last month to hand over 33 Israeli hostages, including women, children and older men, in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, in the course of a six-week truce during which Israeli forces would pull back from some of their positions in Gaza. Six swaps have taken place so far, with the next one expected on Saturday.
The group said it would increase the number of hostages to be released in the next exchange from three to six. Four men held hostage since October 7, 2023 and two others who have been in captivity for about a decade are expected to be freed on Saturday. The fragile ceasefire in Gaza continues to hold despite accusations of breaches on both sides, and talks are expected to begin soon on the second phase.
