The National Center for Forensic Medicine officially confirmed Thursday evening that it has identified the body of former hostage Oded Lifshitz, 85, who was murdered in captivity more than a year ago.
His family and the Prime Minister’s Office had announced the development earlier in the day, with officials saying that he was killed by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Dr. Chen Kugel, head of the forensic institute, said that forensic teams were working to provide definitive identification of the three other bodies transferred from Hamas custody, which the terrorist group has claimed to be those of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir.
Hundreds of Israelis gathered along the roads without any formal call to do so, lining the route taken by the convoy carrying the hostages’ remains from Gaza to the forensic center in Tel Aviv. Silent and solemn, they held Israeli flags, orange balloons symbolizing the red-haired Bibas children, and signs reading “Forgive us.” Elderly women recited Psalms, teenagers stood with tear-streaked faces and a man clutching a balloon watched in silence.
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