The captors of Ariel and Kfir Bibas, the two Israeli children taken hostage by Hamas during the October 7 terrorist attack, "brutally murdered them with their bare hands," not by gunfire, IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Friday.
In a televised statement, Hagari dismissed Hamas' claims that the Bibas children and their mother, Shiri, were killed in an Israeli airstrike. He reiterated that intelligence and forensic evidence confirm the children were not executed by gunfire but were killed in a particularly violent manner by their captors, who then mutilated their bodies to cover up the crime.
"The extremists committed a heinous atrocity, treating defenseless civilians in the same way ISIS did," Hagari said.
He added that the findings are based on forensic analysis from the examination of the bodies, corroborated by intelligence Israel has shared with its international partners.