Israel prime Benjamin minister Netanyahu accused Hamas of breaking the ceasefire deal after forensic tests showed a body returned from Gaza was not hostage Shiri Bibas.
The Israeli military said that two of the bodies returned were confirmed to belong to Bibas’s two sons, and a third was identified as another hostage, Oded Lifshitz.
But the fourth body was not found to be belong to Shiri Bibas, or any of the other Israeli hostages held in Gaza, according to the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).
“We will work with determination to bring Shiri home together with all our hostages – both living and dead – and ensure that Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and malicious violation of the agreement,” Netanyahu said.
Hamas claimed in a statement that the remains of Shiri Bibas were mixed with other human remains in the rubble after Israeli air strikes, according to Reuters news agency.
Hamas has claimed the four hostages were killed in Israeli air strikes. But Israel said the forensic tests showed Bibas’s two sons and Lifshitz were killed by their captors.
The ceasefire deal started earlier this year, and Hamas has been releasing living hostages in exchange for thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli jails. The row over Bibas’s remains has thrown the future of the ceasefire deal into question.
If the agreement goes according to plan, Hamas is set to release six hostages on Saturday and four more bodies next week.