Forensic findings confirm Kfir, Ariel Bibas were brutally murdered in captivity

Official identification has linked the remains of two of the four bodies returned to Israel today from captivity as belonging to Kfir and Ariel Bibas, the IDF confirmed early Friday morning, alongside a report on forensic findings of the case.

The two boys, nine months and four years old, respectively, at the time of their abduction on October 7, 2023. The bodies were identified using forensic analysis in an interdepartmental collaboration between the National Institute of Forensic Medicine and Israel Police.

Available intelligence and forensic evidence from the identification process have led officials to determine that the two children were brutally murdered in captivity by terrorists in November 2023, just a month after their abduction.

Kfir Bibas was murdered at 10 months old. Ariel was murdered at four years old.

The children were abducted from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz alongside their father, Yarden, and their mother Shiri.

Where is Shiri Bibas’ body, and what is Hamas doing with it?

While their father, Yarden, was released as part of the hostage return agreement on February 1, 2025, their mother, Shiri’s body, was supposed to be released by their side. The body that was returned with Kfir, Ariel, and Oded Lifshitz was not a match for Shiri Bibas, according to the Institute of Forensic Medicine.

The military identified Oded Lifshitz definitively before confirming the identities of Ariel and Kfir Bibas. The body that was posing as the remains of Shiri Bibas, in a coffin locked and sent with keys that did not match, was an anonymous woman. After arrival, she was dressed in items of clothing, but still not a match to the Bibas’ mother.

Experts attempted to perform DNA matches to the other Israeli hostages held in Gaza, finding no match.

The return of a random body, not Shiri Bibas, violates the agreement that brought the bodies back, officials said, noting that returning the proper bodies was obligated under the agreement.

Following the confirmation of identities, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “Instead of returning Shiri, the mother of Kfir and Ariel, Hamas returned an unidentified body, as if it were a worthless shipment. This is a new low, an evil and cruelty with no parallel.”

JPost