The Hamas official said that the group had informed the mediators in November 2023 that it was ready to hand over the bodies of the three Bibas family members.
“Mediators were informed at the time and it was also announced in a statement when the Bibas family was killed along with their captors in an Israeli air strike,” the official said.
“Hamas had offered to hand over their bodies in November 2023, but (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu refused at the time.”
Israel and Netanyahu have repeatedly dismissed these claims from Hamas and on Friday the prime minister said in a statement that forensic tests had determined that the Bibas children were “brutally murdered in Hamas captivity and were not killed by Israel Defense Forces (Israeli military) bombings”.
The two Bibas boys had become symbols of the hostage crisis along with their mother Shiri Bibas.
During their attack on Israel on Oct 7, 2023, that triggered the Gaza war, Hamas filmed and later broadcast footage showing the Bibas family’s abduction from their home near the Gaza border.
Ariel was then aged four, while Kfir was the youngest hostage at just nine months old.
Their father Yarden Bibas, who was also seized during the attack, was released earlier this month.
