Israel said that Hamas violated the fragile ceasefire, after the forensic tests found that the fourth body that was issued on Thursday morning was not an Israeli hostage but rather an “unknown body.”
Hamas was supposed to have handed over the remains of Israeli hostages, including two children, in a dark exchange that initially indicated a ceasefire.
The Israeli army quickly confirmed that one of the 83 -year -old bodies was the Oded Lifschitz.
But in a statement early on Friday morning, the army said that although it confirmed two other coffins that contained the remains of two brothers – KFIR, an infant, and Ariel 4, while they were taken as a hostage – the last body was not their adult mother. 32 years old Sherry Pipas.
The defense forces in Israel said: “This is a violation of the utmost intensity by the terrorist organization Hamas, which is obligated by the agreement to return four hostages available.” “We ask Hamas to return Sherry alongside all our hostages.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross had transferred the four coffins in the early morning from Gaza, but the Pepas family, in particular, asked that the media should not jump into conclusions about the fate of their loved ones until the army is with it forensic tests.
The revelation that Hamas may have exchanged hostages with an unknown body that will emphasize the fragile ceasefire.
When the bodies were taken to determine the identity, the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, pleaded with families and dead for forgiveness.
He said: “I bend my head and ask for forgiveness.” “The forgiveness for not protecting you on that terrible day. The forgiveness of not bringing you home safely.”
Israel is supposed to launch hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in return as required in the ceasefire agreement.
Hamas pledged to release six living hostages before the date set on Saturday, in the hope that the support negotiations aim to convert the temporary ceasefire into a permanent truce. Dozens of hostages are still alive and death, in captivity in Gaza.
In Israel, the arrest of the Pepas family – the father of children alive in February in the first stage of the stock exchanges – a symbol of Hamas brutality in the October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war in Gaza.
It is also symbolic for the Israeli army’s failure that day, as the army failed to reach Nir Oz Kibbutz even after a long period of Hamas fighters fled to Gaza with 80 hostages, after they were killed in the remote village.
In a publicity video released by Hamas, Sherry carried children in her arms while the armed fighters seized them. The pictures of smiling red hair everywhere on Israeli posters demanding the release of the hostages.
The circumstances about the death of Pepas remain unconfirmed. Hamas said they were killed in an Israeli air strike, without providing evidence.
The armed group conducted this confirmation on Thursday, and the bodies were handed over to the Red Cross under a sign that blamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “Zionist warplanes” missiles for their death.
The IDF did not comment on its case until Friday, when he said that the two children and Lifschitz “brutally killed by terrorists in captivity.”
Lifschitz and his wife, YoCheved, were also transferred from their homes near the Bibas family. YoCheved 16 days were released in the war.
A few families were informed that their loved ones were unintentionally killed because of their bombing in Gaza, according to interviews in the Israeli media.
Gaza officials estimate that about 50,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, were killed by the Israeli attack, which destroyed most of the besieged pocket. About 1,200 people were killed in Israel in the Hamas raid across the border and about 250 people, according to Israeli officials.
On Thursday, the release was the first of the deceased hostages, and came in the fifth week of the six -week ceasefire last month, according to which Israel fired 985 Palestinian prisoners compared to 19 alive Israeli hostages, according to the Red Cross.
The vast majority of Palestinians in Israel were detained without trial, while dozens were serving the penalty of life after being convicted of military prisons for killing the Israelis.
After sharply controlling aid aid to Gaza for a period of 15 months of the war, the Israeli army allowed thousands of trucks with humanitarian aid in Gaza since the ceasefire entered into force, including a small amount of heavy machines and mobile homes that start this week.
Negotiations between Israel and Hamas began aiming to secure a permanent truce in Cairo, by Egypt, Qatar and the United States. But the deal will require Israel to withdraw its army from Gaza and Hamas to release 60 hostages or so, and many of them are afraid.
Netanyahu’s ruling coalition relies on supporting a right -right political party that bitterly opposes the ceasefire and pledged to resume the attack on Hamas.
The armed group seemed to threaten the hostages during the delivery of Thursday, and a sign showed: “The return of the war = the return of your prisoners in the coffins.”
It is known that Hamas had executed at least six prisoners last year after it was suspected of conducting an Israeli rescue operation in the tunnels in which they were reserved.
The Israeli Defense Army said at the time that there was no such operation, and it stumbled on the hostages who were recently killed in a regular patrol.