No evidence Hamas killed Bibas family. Israel using deaths to manufacture consent for genocide.
Shiri Bibas (left) and her sons Ariel, 4, (top-right) and baby Kfir, who were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz on 7 October 2023
Jonathan Ofir writes in Mondoweiss on 23 February 2025 (updated on 26 February):
Ever since the October 7 attack on Israel, there was one Israeli family that became the focus of apologists as so-called proof of Hamas being “human animals” in order to legitimize the Israeli genocide. That family is the Bibas family.
Its four members, father Yarden, mother Shiri, and the two small children, 4-year-old Ariel and 9-month-old Kfir, were taken hostage on October 7 at kibbutz Nir Oz. The mother and two children were reportedly held separately from the father by the Mujahideen Brigades (an offshoot of the mainstream Fatah movement). In late November 2023, Hamas claimed that the mother and the two children had been killed together with their captors under Israeli bombing, and offered to hand over their bodies. Israel rejected the offer as “propaganda” and would not confirm their deaths. The father was freed during the February 1 prisoner exchange, and at that point was “still clinging” to hope that the rest of his family was alive.
Last week, the bodies of the three dead family members were handed over to Israel. On Friday, the Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari claimed that the two Bibas brothers were “brutally murdered while being held hostage in Gaza no later than November 2023.” Hagari was very explicit and precise in what he claimed was “confirmed”:
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That is some claim. But where is the evidence to confirm these findings? None appears to be forthcoming, aside from promises that such proof exists somewhere.