Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated today that Israel will make Hamas pay for not delivering the body of hostage Siri Bibas, as had been agreed.

“We will act decisively to bring Siri back to her homeland, along with all of our other hostages – both the living and the dead – and to ensure that Hamas will pay the price for this barbaric and terrifying violation of the agreement,” he said in a video-recorded statement.

The Israeli military accused the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the early hours of the morning of having “brutally murdered” Ariel and Kfir Bibas, aged four and eight-and-a-half months, during their captivity in the Gaza Strip, as well as failing to deliver the body of their mother, Siri Bibas, to Israel on Thursday, but instead delivering that of an “unknown” person.

Hamas claims that Ariel and Kfir Bibas, aged four and 8.5 months when they were abducted from the kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, were killed in Israeli airstrikes.

The children’s father, Yarden Bibas, who was abducted and held separately, was freed earlier this month.

Additionally, the body delivered yesterday was not that of their mother Siri Bibas, nor was it recognized as belonging to any other Israeli hostage. It was the body of an “unknown” person, the Israeli military added, denouncing the “blatant violation” of the ceasefire agreement made with Hamas.