Trump hostage official warns Hamas of 'total annihilation' over hostage body switch

In an unusually forceful CNN interview, the Trump administration's hostage affairs envoy delivered a stark warning to Hamas after the militant group returned an unidentified body instead of Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas.

"The decision to transfer a body that isn't of a hostage is shocking and constitutes a violation of the agreement," Adam Boehler said in the late Thursday interview. "Hamas must release all hostages, or they will face total annihilation."

The grim development came as Israel confirmed that while the bodies of Bibas's young sons, Kfir and Ariel, were returned as agreed, a third body provided by Hamas was not that of their mother. The revelation has devastated the Bibas family, who have become a symbol of the October 7 tragedy after footage of their capture from Kibbutz Nir Oz circulated worldwide.

Boehler forcefully rejected Hamas's claims that the family had been killed in an Israeli airstrike, citing evidence that the children were killed while in captivity in November 2023. When pressed about Hamas's motives for the body switch, Boehler suggested a chilling possibility: "They probably murdered with such brutality that they have no body to return."

The development has cast a shadow over ongoing hostage negotiations and raised questions about Hamas's compliance with future agreements. Boehler's threats reflect growing international frustration with the militant group's tactics in the devastating conflict that has now entered its fifth month.