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JERUSALEM: An autopsy conducted on the remains of Israeli hostages Shiri Bibas and her two young boys after they were handed over by Hamas militants found “no evidence of injuries caused by a bombing,” a top forensic expert said Saturday.
“We have identified the remains of Shiri Bibas, two days after identifying her children, Ariel and Kfir. Our examination found no evidence of injuries caused by (a) bombing,” Chen Kugel, director of the National Institute of Forensic Medicine said in a video statement.
Shiri Bibas and her sons were seized by militants on October 7, 2023 during the attack by Hamas on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
Shiri’s husband and the father of the two boys, Yarden Bibas, had also been abducted but was released alive earlier this month.
Since their abduction, Shiri Bibas and her two sons, Ariel who was then aged four, and Kfir, then only nine months, had become symbols of Israel’s hostage ordeal.
On Thursday, Hamas handed over four bodies, saying they were of Shiri Bibas, her two young sons, and an elderly hostage.
While the remains of her two sons and the elderly hostage were identified positively, Israeli authorities said the fourth body was not that of Shiri Bibas, sparking anger and grief across the country.
But on Friday, Hamas — which blamed a possible “mix-up” of bodies — handed over new remains to the Red Cross, which were later identified to be that of Shiri Bibas.
Hamas has long insisted that an Israeli air strike killed Bibas and her sons early in the war.
However, the Israeli military asserts instead that they were killed by militants and even said that the two children were killed in “cold blood.”
“Ariel and Kfir Bibas were murdered by terrorists in cold blood. The terrorists did not shoot the two young boys — they killed them with their bare hands,” military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a televised statement on Friday.
“Afterwards, they committed horrific acts to cover up these atrocities,” he added.
The Bibas family described the deaths of the three hostages as murder, but asked that the manner of the death not be shared publicly.
“The family has not received any such details from official sources,” it said in a statement earlier on Saturday.
“The family requests to cease adding details regarding the fact that Shiri and the children were murdered by their captors.
“Yarden and the family want the world to know this was murder, without delving into any specifics,” it said.
On Saturday, Hamas reiterated that the Bibas family was not killed in captivity in Gaza.
“The false allegations that the criminal (Israeli) occupation is disseminating about the death of the Bibas children at the hands of their captors are merely baseless lies and fabrications,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said in a statement.