Feb. 21 (UPI) -- Israel on Friday accused Hamas of a breach of the cease-fire agreement between the warring sides of the "utmost severity" after DNA testing of four sets of hostage remains returned on Thursday showed one of the bodies was not that of Shiri Bibas as Hamas had claimed.
Calling it "a shocking and horrifying violation" in a post on X, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said two of the bodies had been confirmed as those of Bibas' sons Ariel and Kfir, who would now be 2 and 5, and a third as that of 84-year-old peace activist Oded Lifshitz.
"Another heartbreaking morning for Israel, and for all who care about human life, and human dignity. This is a shocking and horrific violation of the ceasefire agreement, another cruel act by the terrorists of Hamas, who continue to show utter disregard for humanity," Herzog wrote.
"As we mourn this national tragedy, and as we anxiously await the expected release of six more hostages this weekend, we must remember our highest duty -- to do everything in our power to bring every one of our kidnapped sisters and brothers home."
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Israel Defense Forces said the two children had been murdered while in captivity, contradicting a claim by Hamas made during the November 2023 pause in the fighting that the two children had been killed along with their mother in an Israeli airstrike.
The IDF wrote on X that experts from the National Institute of Forensic Medicine and the Israel Police had determined that the boys had in fact been "brutally murdered" by their captors in November 2023 and that the remains Hamas said were their mother's were not those of 32-year-old Shiri Bibas and no match was found for any of the other female hostages still being held.
"This is an anonymous, unidentified body," IDF said. "This is a violation of utmost severity by the Hamas terrorist organization, which is obligated under the agreement to return four deceased hostages. We demand that Hamas return Shiri home along with all our hostages."
The Hamas-run Government Media Office in Gaza said in a statement that Shiri Bibas' remains may have been mixed up with those of other people killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.
Shiri's husband and the father of the boys, Yarden Bibas, was returned alive Feb. 1, apparently unaware of the fate of his family, as they were held separately after being kidnapped from their home in Nir Oz kibbutz in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Accusing Hamas of a supreme act of cruelty and cynicism by putting "the body of a Gazan woman in the coffin" and proffering it as Shiri Bibas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on social media that Israel would "settle accounts with them."
U.S. President Donald Trump's hostages envoy Adam Boehler told CNN that he was "stunned" and warned Hamas it faced "total annihilation" unless it returned Bibas' body and all the remaining hostages.
Also on Friday, following the bombing of three buses in Tel Aviv overnight, Netanyahu ordered the IDF to carry out a renewed "intensive operation against centers of terrorism in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank]" and instructed the Israel Police and the Israel Security Agency to ramp up security to prevent further attacks in Israeli cities.
A West Bank offshoot of Hamas claimed responsibility for the attacks and local media reports said a 10-pound explosive device that failed to detonate contained a message saying "Revenge from Tulkarm," a reference to an operation by the Israeli military in the West Bank.
No casualties were reported as the buses were parked up in depots for the night and unoccupied when they exploded.
