Hamas terrorists brutally murdered young Israeli brothers Ariel and Kfir Bibas with their bare hands, Israel said Friday — despite the terror group long claiming the children were killed in a targeted airstrike carried out by the Jewish state.
“Ariel and Kfir Bibas were murdered by terrorists in cold blood,” IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said of the boys, ages 4 and 10 months respectively.
“Contrary to Hamas’s lies, Ariel and Kfir were not killed in an airstrike.
“The terrorists did not shoot the two young boys — they killed them with their bare hands. Afterwards, they committed horrific acts to cover up these atrocities,” he said.
Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas were kidnapped from their home during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack. @Israel/XThe shocking assertion was made after the youngsters’ remains were among those returned in four coffins to Israel — and positively identified — Thursday as part of the ongoing cease-fire deal, according to Israeli officials.
“This assessment is based on both forensic findings from the identification process and intelligence that supports these findings,” Hagari said, adding the tragic children were killed in Gaza “no later” than November 2023 — a month after Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre in Israel.
“We have shared these findings, intelligence and forensics with our partners around the world so they can verify it.”
The Bibas family, who became global symbols of the plight of Israeli hostages, had long held out hope the boys and their mother, Shiri Bibi, were still alive after they were kidnapped by Hamas from their home in Nir Oz on Oct. 7.
Shiri’s husband and the boys’ father, Yarden Bibas, was also taken hostage but he was later freed, alive, by Hamas on Feb. 1.
The IDF spokesman said he spoke to the grief-stricken father on Thursday to inform him of the harrowing developments.
“Yarden looked me in the eyes and asked that all the world know and be horrified by the manner in which they murdered his children,” Hagari said.
During the father’s captivity, Hamas had forced him to announce the death of his wife and kids in a tragic propaganda video.
At the time, the terror group had claimed – without offering proof — that the boys and their mother had been killed in an Israeli air strike in November 2023.
“The terrorists did not shoot the two young boys — they killed them with their bare hands,” the IDF said. Obtained by The New York Post
Hamas had claimed in November 2023 that the kids and their mother were taken out in an Israeli airstrike.
Israel only officially confirmed their demise this week after revealing the bodies of the boys and their mom would be among the remains that Hamas had agreed to turn over Thursday.
While Israeli officials positively identified the remains of the boys and another hostage, 83-year-old Oded Lifshitz, the fourth casket — which was meant to hold their mother — contained an “anonymous, unidentified body.”
“During the identification process, it was determined that the additional body received is not that of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other hostage,” officials said.
On Friday, the purported body of Shiri was en route to Israel after Hamas claimed it delivered her remains to the Red Cross.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday decried the children’s murders, saying “these perfect children … were 4 years old and less than 1 year old when the Hamas savages snatched them from their mother’s arms.
“Who kidnaps a little boy and a baby and murders them? Monsters. That’s who,” he added.
The boys’ remains were among the four coffins returned to Israel and identified on Thursday, according to Israeli officials. REUTERSNetanyahu vowed revenge for what he called a “cruel and malicious violation” of the cease-fire deal over the failure to return the mom’s remains.
The Israeli leader accused the terror militants of acting “in an unspeakably cynical manner” by placing the unidentified remains in the coffin instead of Bibas.
“We will work with determination to bring Shiri home together with all our hostages — both living and dead — and ensure that Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and malicious violation of the agreement,” he said.
“The sacred memory of Oded Lifshitz and Ariel and Kfir Bibas will be forever enshrined in the heart of the nation. May God avenge their blood. And so we will avenge.”
Hamas, on Friday, dismissed the incident as an “error” and claimed it had “no interest in retaining any bodies.”
However, President Trump’s special envoy for hostages, Adam Boehler, speculated that the mother’s body was replaced because her injuries were likely too gruesome.
“Why would they do this? Probably the answer is she was so brutally murdered that she’s being hidden or the body has been disposed of and they probably cannot give her back,” he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Thursday.
“It’s horrific. It’s a clear violation and if I have one piece of advice for Hamas now, it’s ‘You need to release her body immediately’.”
Meanwhile, news of the children’s savage demise sparked immediate outrage.
“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,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.
“This barbaric act is yet another undeniable testament to the unfathomable brutality of those who continue to hold our loved ones captive.”
