Israeli forensics chief finds no evidence that hostage Shiri Bibas died in explosion

Israel’s top forensics chief said his team found no evidence that slain hostage Shiri Bibas was killed in an explosion, contradicting Hamas’ claims that she and her toddlers died as a result of an airstrike.

Dr. Chen Kugel, director of the Abu Kabir National Institute of Forensic Medicine, backed Israeli officials’ claims that Bibas, 32, and her two sons, nine-month-old Kfir and four-year-old Ariel, were not killed by an Israeli airstrike in November 2023.

“Our examination found no injuries consistent with a bombing,” Kugel told reporters.

“We were met with depths of evil and malice that could not be conceived,” Kugel said of examining the bodies.

While Kugel did not say how Bibas died, Israeli officials claimed she was “brutally” murdered alongside her children in November 2023.

IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Hamas killed the boys — whose horrific kidnapping became a symbol of the Oct. 7 massacre — “with their bare hands.”

“Afterward, they committed horrific acts to cover up these atrocities,” Hagari said.

Husband and father Yarden Bibas, who was released by Hamas earlier this month, thanked a support group he was a member of for their help as he mourns the death of his wife and children, whose fate remained a mystery until Friday’s forensic examination.

“Thank you so much – to each and every one of you who cared, prayed and helped my family and me,” Bibas wrote, his first public message since the return of his loved ones’ bodies.

“I appreciate it very much and it’s not taken for granted,” he added.

Hamas has maintained that Bibas and her children were killed by an Israeli airstrike in November 2023, a period covering the harshest bombardment campaign in Gaza that decimated a majority of the buildings in the north.

The terror group claimed it was the bombardment that was also behind Bibas’ late return after Hamas released the body of an unknown Palestinian woman in her place on Thursday, claiming the bodies had been mixed up after they were recovered from the alleged rubble.

Her body was eventually returned on Friday evening following international outcry.

The Israel Defense Forces called the action a “serious violation” of the cease-fire agreement struck between the two warring sides, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning Hamas that the act will not be forgotten.

Along with Bibas and the toddlers, Hamas also released the body of journalist and peace advocate Oded Lifshitz, with six living hostages freed on Saturday.

The terror group is scheduled to release the bodies of four more captives later this week as the final exchange of the first phase of the cease-fire deal, which called on Hamas to free 33 captives.

Both sides are still negotiating the terms of the second phase, which call for the freedom of all remaining living captives in Gaza, as well as establishing the terms to a permanent end to the war and Israel’s withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave.