Bibas Family Rejects Israeli Claims About Their Relatives’ Deaths

Occupied Palestine (Quds News Network)- The Bibas family has denied receiving any official confirmation about Israeli military claims that their children were beaten, suffocated, or mutilated. In a statement, they urged media outlets to stop spreading unverified claims about the deaths of Shiri Bibas and her two sons, Kfir and Ariel. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, speaking on behalf of the family, stated: “Any publication of details, including references to the treatment of the bodies, is against the family’s wishes.”

Shiri Bibas and her children were taken to Gaza on October 7, 2023, during the chaos that followed Al-Aqsa Flood military operation. Hamas has long maintained that an Israeli airstrike killed them early in the genocide, as Israel carpet bombed the besieged strip killing hundreds of thousands of civilians. Their bodies were handed over to the Red Cross this week. Shiri’s husband, Yarden Bibas, was also taken prisoner but was released earlier this month.

Israel, without providing evidence, claims that Hamas killed the Bibas family “with their bare hands.” Israeli media amplified this narrative, backing it with another unproven claim that the family did not die in an airstrike. This assertion comes from forensic pathologist Chen Kugel, who has previously spread false information, including the debunked story of 40 beheaded babies. Kugel has also made unproven claims about Israeli casualties on October 7, alleging execution-style killings and victims whose pelvises were shot, stabbed, burned, and run over.

Israel has a history of making unverified claims that later proved false. The military falsely alleged that Hamas operated bases under Gaza hospitals and schools, claims widely repeated by Western media before being debunked.

A similar case emerged in December 2023 when Israel told the families of Nik Beizer, Ron Sherman, and Elia Toledano that Hamas had executed them. However, Ron Sherman’s mother later discovered that Israeli forces had killed them by asphyxiation when they gassed the tunnel where they were held. In September 2024, the Israeli military finally admitted they had killed the three in an airstrike, contradicting their earlier claims.

Earlier this month, Israel’s +972 Magazine reported that the military had used heavy rockets to flood Gaza’s tunnels with lethal fumes, causing asphyxiation. Ron Sherman’s mother later placed a tombstone stating that her son was “kidnapped, abandoned, and sacrificed by the Israeli government.” The military later removed the tombstone.

The mother of Ron Sherman, an Israeli soldier detained in Gaza, whose body was recently recovered, reveals in a Facebook post that her son was killed by poison gas used against him by Israel's military, not by Hamas, as was originally claimed. pic.twitter.com/w0QGakqfB6

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 17, 2024

The mother of the late Israeli soldier Ron Sherman stated that her son was killed by the Israeli army's lethal gas, as the army leaders chose to sacrifice him while attempting to eliminate militants. pic.twitter.com/ULeDWRTZJo

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 18, 2024