Israel prepares to receive six more Gaza hostages as Bibas body identified

A poster depicting a hostage Omer Wenkert, at the site of the Nova festival where party goers were killed and kidnapped during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas gunmen from Gaza, in Reim, southern Israel, on Wednesday. | REUTERS

by JAMES MACKENZIE AND MAAYAN LUBELL
February 22, 2025

JERUSALEM – Israel prepared to receive six more hostages from Gaza in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees on Saturday, as a body handed over by Hamas hours earlier was confirmed to be that of hostage Shiri Bibas.
The fragile truce in the war between Israel and Hamas militants had been threatened with derailment by the misidentification of a body released on Thursday as that of Bibas, who was kidnapped with her two small sons and her husband in the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

However late on Friday, Hamas handed over another body, which her family said had been confirmed to be hers.