Headline Roundup • February 21st, 2025
Hamas Allegedly Hands Over Incorrect Remains of Israeli Hostage, Netanyahu Says Hamas Will Pay 'Full Price'
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Hamas was set to hand over the remains of an Israeli woman, Shiri Bibas, and her two young children on Thursday. But Israel said Hamas turned over an unrelated Gazan woman’s body, throwing the ceasefire agreement into question.
The Details: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the incident was a violation of the ceasefire agreement signed last month, adding he will “ensure Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and evil violation of the agreement.” Hamas said it was investigating the "possibility of an error or overlap in the bodies, which may have resulted from the occupation targeting and bombing the place where the family was located."
For Context: Six Israeli hostages and 602 Palestinians are set to be released on Sunday.
How The Media Covered It: Reuters (Center bias) led with Hamas' comments, calling the incident a “possible error.” Reuters also reported that both sides of the conflict have claimed that the ceasefire has been violated. CBS News (Lean Left) included Netanyahu’s quote in the headline and criticisms that Hamas was improperly handling tradeoffs of human remains and hostages. CBS also included a quote from the IDF saying that the hostages were murdered by terrorists “in cold blood… they killed them with their bare hands.” How the hostages were killed has not been confirmed. The Washington Examiner (Lean Right) also included Netanyahu’s quote in the headline and included another quote from Netanyahu saying, “The cruelty of the Hamas monsters knows no bounds… In an unspeakably cynical manner, they did not return Shiri [the mother] to her little children, the little angels, and they put the body of a Gazan woman in a coffin.”
Featured Coverage of this Story
Israeli leaders expressed outrage about the “cruelty of the Hamas monsters” after the terrorist group handed over the anonymous body of a Palestinian woman during a recent prisoner exchange instead of the promised remains of Shiri Bibas, a dead Jewish hostage.
In accordance with a six-week ceasefire deal reached in January, Hamas released the bodies of four Israeli hostages on Thursday. While identities of the elderly Oded Lifschitz and two young children, Airel Bibas and Kfir Bibas, were confirmed, the supposed remains of their mother, Shiri Bibas, were determined by Israeli officials to...
Ali Jadallah/Anadolu/Getty
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to make Hamas pay "the full price" for what he called a "cruel and wicked violation" of the tenuous Gaza ceasefire agreement after the Israeli and U.S.-designated terrorist group returned the remains of a Gazan woman instead of an Israeli mother taken hostage with her two young children.
Israeli officials said late Thursday evening that Hamas had handed over the body of an unidentified Gazan woman earlier in the day instead of the remains of Shiri Bibas as expected. In a handover orchestrated under the ceasefire deal that came...
JERUSALEM/CAIRO, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Hamas said on Friday it was investigating a possible error in identifying human remains handed to Israel under a ceasefire deal as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened retaliation for failing to release the body of hostage Shiri Bibas.
Hamas was due to hand over the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two sons Kfir and Ariel on Thursday, along with the remains of a fourth hostage under the ceasefire deal that has halted fighting in Gaza since last month.
