GAZA — Hamas on Thursday handed over the bodies of four Israeli hostages held in Gaza — the first time the group has released deceased captives since October 7, 2023.

They are said to include the bodies of Shiri Bibas, who was aged 32 when she and her sons Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 9 months, were abducted from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, southern Israel by Hamas-led militants more than 16 months ago.

The two boys have become the most recognizable victims of the October 7 terror attacks, and the first return of hostage bodies marks a hugely emotional and somber moment for Israel.

The fourth body is said to be that of Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 years old when he and his wife, Yocheved Lifshitz, were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Yocheved was released by Hamas on October 24, 2023.

Ahead of the handover, Hamas militants placed four black caskets on a stage in the southern city of Khan Younis, behind which was a propaganda backdrop with slogans in Arabic, Hebrew and English.

The caskets were first handed to the Red Cross then transferred to the Israeli military inside Gaza, Israeli authorities confirmed.

The bodies will be taken to the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv for forensic examination.

After the handover, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said hearts across the country “lie in tatters,” and asked for forgiveness on behalf of the government for failing to protect those captured on October 7.

“Agony. Pain. There are no words,” he wrote in a post on X.

Hamas claimed in November 2023 that the Bibas children and their mother were killed in an Israeli airstrike, but did not produce any evidence. Israel has never confirmed their deaths.

The children’s father, Yarden Bibas, was released by Hamas earlier this month after 484 days of captivity. He was one of the 19 Israeli hostages freed alive under the January 2025 ceasefire deal.

The Israeli military had previously retrieved the bodies of multiple hostages in Gaza.

At just 9 months old, Kfir was the youngest hostage kidnapped into Gaza and the youngest to have been killed. A photo of him holding a pink elephant toy and looking directly at the camera with a toothless smile has been featured in numerous campaigns and protests around the world.

His brother Ariel, just 4 at the time of the attack, was often shown in a photo taken after he had a haircut, still wrapped in the hairdresser’s cape. Earlier photos of the family showed Ariel, a big fan of Batman, with locks of long red hair.

The picture was shown on the large screens at New York City’s Times Square, printed on t-shirts worn by protesters in London, Berlin and elsewhere, and brought to the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos by Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

A video of the Bibas family’s abduction became one of the symbols of the brutality of the October 7 attack. It showed a terrified Shiri clinging tightly to her children wrapped in a blanket, with Ariel still sucking his pacifier.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) later released another video, which they said showed Shiri and the two boys alive in southern Gaza on October 7. The footage showed a person wrapped in a blanket carrying a child being ordered around by armed militants before being put in a car and driven away.

The two boys and their mother were not released from Gaza during the temporary truce in late November 2023, even though the deal agreed between Israel and Hamas called for all women and children to be set free.

The IDF said at that time they believed the family was being held by other militant groups, not Hamas.

Later that week, Hamas said the two Bibas children and their mother were killed in an Israeli airstrike, without providing evidence. Israel never confirmed their deaths.

A few days after making the claim, Hamas released a video of Yarden, the father, in which he blamed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the death of his wife and two children.

Yarden appeared to be in extreme distress in the video and was very likely speaking under duress.

In a statement published shortly after his release this month, Yarden urged the world to “continue doing everything possible” to ensure all hostages return home.

“Sadly, my family hasn’t returned to me yet. They are still there. My light is still there, and as long as they’re there, everything here is dark. Thanks to you, I was brought back - help me bring the light back to my life,” he said, referring to the Israeli public.

The run-up to the release of the four bodies on Thursday was marred by the Bibas family’s anger at the Israeli Prime Minister’s office, which they said had released the names without their approval.

A source in the Prime Minister’s office told CNN that while it had not published an official statement with the names of the dead hostages, IDF liaison officers had approved the publishing of the names to reporters without clearing this first with the family.

The forum later released a statement at the request of the Bibas family asking the public not to “eulogize our loved ones until there is a confirmation after final identification.” The final identification is expected to come in the following days.

In a statement Wednesday ahead of the release, Lifshitz’s family said that “these are not easy times for us, after we were informed that our beloved Oded is on the list of the hostages who will return to Israel tomorrow, after being kidnapped alive from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz.” — Agencies