Netanyahu killed Bibas family and now exploits tragedy to derail Gaza truce deal

By Alireza Akbari

In his remarks on Tuesday, February 18, Khalil Al-Hayya, leader of the Gaza-based resistance movement Hamas, announced that the group would release all Israeli captives if the regime immediately halted its aggression.

The senior Hamas official also reaffirmed the movement's commitment to the ceasefire agreement, slamming the Tel Aviv regime for evading its obligations, particularly regarding humanitarian provisions.

“We are still working day and night, in all directions, and with the mediators, especially Qatar and Egypt, to compel the occupation to abide by what was agreed upon in the first phase, particularly about relief and shelter materials, heavy equipment, fuel and electricity alternatives,” Al-Hayya said.

The senior Hamas official also addressed the handover of the remains of four Israeli captives, which was scheduled for Thursday, February 20, warning that the Israeli regime “continues to evade engaging in negotiations for the second phase of the ceasefire agreement.”

Of the four captives whose remains were handed over to the regime, three included members of the Bibas family - a mother and two children (Ariel and Kfir) - who were killed in Israeli airstrikes last year.

Hours after their remains were handed over, there was an avalanche of hate against Hamas.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee Majority, via its X (formerly Twitter) account, claimed without evidence, that the trio were executed by the Hamas resistance fighters. 

The committee's statement was immediately met with severe backlash on social media, with netizens denouncing it as part of a Zionist narrative to vilify the Palestinian resistance.

Some countered the accusation by shedding light on the Bibas family's tragedy, while others labeled the incident as part of Israel's "Hannibal Doctrine," referring to the killing of three Bibas family members, now exploited by the regime to sabotage further progress on the ceasefire agreement.

That's exactly what happened. On Sunday, Tel Aviv announced it was delaying the release of more than 600 Palestinian abductees on flimsy pretexts who were slated to be freed as part of the deal.

It would have been the largest single-day release of the first stage of the Gaza ceasefire.

In a post on X, Ramy Abdu, founder and chairman of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, shared photos of the Bibas family along with a brief timeline of events.

The photo outlined their deaths in Israeli airstrikes, announced in November 2023, Hamas’s offer to release their bodies in December 2023, and the confirmation of their deaths by the family’s father to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in January 2024.

Abdu’s caption suggested that the Bibas family could still be alive if the Israeli regime had halted its relentless bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip, which killed more than 48,000 in 15 months. 

Journalist and director of the online news outlet Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah, also took to his X account to reject the US Congress committee's claim, stating that there is no evidence to support the accusation that Hamas executed the mother and her two children.

Abunimah also referenced the onset of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood in October 2023, emphasizing, "There were no burned or beheaded babies" at the hands of Hamas fighters.

He pointed out how Israeli propaganda, fueled by "Zionist fanatics," attempted to push the narrative that Hamas was responsible for the Bibas children's deaths, despite "zero evidence" to support it.

Abunimah criticized the Israeli bombardment of Gaza and the Israeli regime's "disregard for all human life," noting that many Israeli settlers who were killed by Israeli airstrikes could have survived if the regime had agreed to the ceasefire deal sooner.

“Many Israelis killed by Israeli airstrikes could have returned home safely if Israel had not rejected a deal for so long," he stated.

He also condemned Israel’s killing of Israeli settlers as part of a “Hannibal Doctrine,” referring to the February confessions of former Israeli minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant, who confirmed the orders given to Israeli forces to “shoot and kill” Israeli captives during October 7, 2023.

An X user under the name of ADAM shared a video dated back to October 2023, showing the Bibas family—Shiri Bibas, the mother, and her sons Ariel and Kfir—being protected by Palestinians.

"This video shows Palestinians on Oct 7 protecting the Bibas family and others from the Israeli forces’ Hannibal directive, using their own bodies as human shields… Israel killed the Bibas family a few weeks later," the user wrote.

In the video, as the mother hugs her sons, a Palestinian man reassures them, saying, "Don’t worry, we are people with humanity." Another man can be heard loudly urging, "Cover them, calm down, shield them. Cover her, guys, she has children. Shield her, protect them."

In yet another piece of evidence refuting the claim about Hamas killing the Bibas family, the X account MenchOsint shared a video message from Yarden Bibas, whose wife and two children were killed in Israeli bombings, addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Netanyahu, you bombed and killed my wife and my two children, who were the most important things in my life,” Bibas said, holding the Israeli bombardment—and Netanyahu—accountable for the deaths of his family members.

In the message, he also pleaded with Netanyahu to return the bodies of his family, a request that was not fulfilled until February 20, 2025.

An X user by the name of Khalissee also shared the same video, captioning it, “Remember: Israel killed the Bibas family.”

Amid the backlash over the false claims about Hamas, Palestinian political analyst and writer Muhammad Shehada issued a warning about the Israeli regime exploiting the Bibas family tragedy as an excuse to derail the ceasefire on his X account.

“I told you this would happen! I told you a month ago! I told you Israel’s government and its allies would use the Bibas tragedy to blow up the ceasefire at the end of phase 1,” Shehada wrote on X.

An X user under the name Farouq also pointed to Zionists' attempts “to lie about the Bibas family,” emphasizing key events: the Israeli strike that killed the family in November 2023, Hamas’s offer to hand over their bodies and Yarden Bibas’s confirmation that his family was killed by Israeli airstrikes.

Journalist and author Hala Jaber also expressed concern over the tragedy of the Bibas family and the Israeli narrative surrounding the incident amplified by Zionist X accounts.

“Israel’s handling of the Bibas family’s tragedy continues to raise serious ethical concerns. Ignoring key facts to justify resuming the assault on Gaza does not change the reality of what has happened,” she wrote on X, sharing the video of Yarden Bibas pleading with Netanyahu for the return of his family members' bodies.

Following discussions on social media about the Bibas family and the Israeli plot to abuse the tragic incident to evade negotiations, Abu Obeida, spokesperson for the Al-Qassam Brigades, announced that as part of the Al-Aqsa Flood prisoner exchange deal, the bodies of the Bibas family and Israeli captive Oded Lifshitz would be handed over on February 20.

He emphasized that the Israeli bombardments had killed the Israeli captives, stating, “All of them were alive before the Zionist occupation aircraft deliberately bombed the locations where they were held.”

On February 20, Hamas handed over the bodies of four Israeli captives to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip.

After the handover, the Al-Qassam Brigades issued a statement, affirming their respect for the sanctity of the dead and the feelings of the families during the ceremony, despite the Israeli military’s failure to protect the lives of the captives when they were alive.

The military wing of Hamas also held the Israeli regime fully responsible for repeatedly obstructing the exchange agreement at the cost of their own captives held in the besieged territory. 

“The Al-Qassam Brigades and the resistance did everything in their power to protect the prisoners and preserve their lives, but the barbaric and continuous bombing by the occupation prevented us from being able to save all the prisoners,” the statement read.

Remains of Israeli captive Shiri Bibas returned by Hamas: Family

The family of Israeli captive Shiri Bibas has confirmed that Hamas has returned her remains.

In a message addressing the families of the Israeli captives—specifically the Bibas and Lifshitz families—the resistance group stated that it would have preferred to return the captives alive but blamed Israeli regime officials for choosing to kill the captives instead of facilitating their return.

The group also highlighted the scale of Israeli airstrikes, which not only killed the Israeli captives but also claimed the lives of at least 17,881 Palestinian children.

“You were victims of a leadership that does not care about its children. We emphasize that exchange is the only way to return the prisoners alive to their families. Any attempt to bring them back through military force or a return to war will only result in more losses among the prisoners,” it stated.

Further revelations about Israeli attacks on the captives came when a video message from freed Israeli captive Noa Argamani went viral on social media. In the message, she described being in a building that was bombed by an Israeli airstrike.

“I was located in a building. It was bombed by an IDF airstrike. F16 fighter jet rockets hit us—three rockets, two exploded and one didn’t. In the building, we were with Al-Qassam soldiers and three hostages: myself, Etai Firsky, and Yosi Sherabi,” she said.

Argamani added that after the building was hit, they were buried under rubble, but Al-Qassam resistance fighters rescued her and Etai.

A day after the bodies were handed over, the Israeli military claimed that one of the bodies did not belong to any of the captives held in Gaza, accusing Hamas of violating the ceasefire.

Hamas rejected the Israeli claim, countering that it was part of Netanyahu's attempts to improve his image before the Zionist community. The resistance group reiterated the need to move forward with implementing all aspects of the ceasefire agreement.

Hamas releases six Israeli captives, affirms readiness for next phase of swap deal

Hamas has initiated the process of handing over six Israeli captives in the seventh round of exchanging prisoners with the occupying regime.

“We in the Hamas movement confirm our seriousness and full commitment to all our obligations, and we have proven this through our behavior during the past days. We have no interest in not committing (to the ceasefire terms) or in keeping any of the bodies,” the statement read.

The movement also noted the possibility of an error or mix-up in the identification of the bodies, which may have resulted from the Israeli bombing of the location where the Bibas family and other Palestinians were present.

In a separate statement, Hamas dismissed the Israeli allegations as "merely baseless," arguing that such claims were intended to tarnish the image of Palestinian resistance and justify the crimes committed by the “criminal occupation” against the Palestinian people.

Amid the Israeli allegations about the Bibas family handover and growing speculation among analysts regarding Israel's efforts to derail the next phase of the ceasefire agreement, an X user named PalestinaLibera shared a pointed message regarding Israel's acts of aggression.

“Why do you think your children (the children you sacrifice and use for unethical propaganda against others) are more important?” the account asked, attaching a list of Palestinian children, aged 0, killed in the Gaza Strip as a result of more than 15 months of Israel’s genocidal campaign," she wrote.

“Thousands of Palestinian children, killed from cold, famine, bombs, bullets, disease because they are dehumanized,” she added.

According to the latest update from the Health Ministry in Gaza on February 18, the death toll has risen to 48,291 martyrs, with 111,722 injured since October 7, 2023.

Figures from the Gaza Government Media Office, released earlier this month, revealed that Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has disproportionately targeted children and women.

Among the martyrs, 17,881 were children, including 214 infants who were born and killed during the aggression. More than 38,000 children have been orphaned, including 17,000 who lost both parents. Additionally, 12,316 women have been killed.

In early November 2024, the UN Human Rights Office condemned the high civilian death toll, saying its analysis showed nearly 70 percent of verified victims over six months were women and children.

The agency attributed the high number of casualties largely to Israel's use of weapons with wide-area effects in densely populated areas.

Among the children who became victims of Israeli brutality are those whose stories have remained in the hearts of freedom seekers. Sidra Hassouna, 7, was one such child. She had sought refuge with her family in the southern Gaza Strip, which had been declared a "safe zone."

On February 14, a major overnight attack on the city of Rafah claimed the lives of over a hundred Palestinians sheltering in makeshift tents and deserted streets.

A missile struck where the Hassouna family was hiding, killing them all and dismembering little Sidra.

Hala Abu Saada, a vibrant 13-year-old from northern Gaza, had captivated many with a viral video performance where she explained a children's song through sign language.

Tragically, her dreams were shattered when an Israeli airstrike struck her home in Jabalia refugee camp on October 17, killing her, her mother, brother, and sisters.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir