CAIRO, February 21. /TASS/. The Palestinian group Hamas will investigate Israel’s claims that the body of Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas was not among the four returned by militants from Gaza on February 20, the movement said on its Telegram channel.

"We will take the situation seriously and inform the mediators of the results of the investigation. We also call for returning the remains of a Palestinian woman who died in the bombardment of Gaza [and whose body was handed over by Hamas as belonging to Shiri Bibas], as Israel claims," Hamas stated, adding that "the bodies might have been switched by mistake" during the debris removal process, as there also were Palestinians at the location where hostages were held.

The radicals noted that they were "surprised by Israel’s reports about the DNA test not confirming the identity of Shiri Bibas," and said they were "not interested in keeping the bodies" of the Israeli hostages.

Earlier on Friday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the militant group Hamas released an "anonymous" body and not that of a slain Israeli hostage. Netanyahu called it a "cruel and despicable violation of the agreement" on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas said on February 20 that it had handed over the bodies of three members of the Bibas family and Oded Lifshitz to the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip. The youngest of the Bibases, Kfir, was nine months old at the time of the abduction on October 7, 2023, and his brother Ariel was four years old.

The Israeli army said that the identities of Lifshitz and the Bibas children had been confirmed, but the fourth body, which was supposed to belong to Shiri Bibas, remained "unidentified" as "no matches were found with any other hostage."

On January 15, Israel and Hamas had reached an agreement to implement a ceasefire in Gaza and release hostages held in the enclave. The agreement, which includes three phases, entered into force on January 19. During the 42-day first phase of the deal, Hamas is to release 33 hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners from Israeli custody.