Israel's Bibas family announced on Saturday that remains returned to Israel the day before were identified to be of hostage Shiri Bibas, taken captive by Palestinian militants in October 2023.

The Israeli kibbutz community of Nir Oz had earlier on Saturday announced Bibas's death, after the International Committee of the Red Cross said it had transferred more human remains to Israeli authorities without saying whose they were.

"After the identification process at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, this morning we received the news we feared the most. Our Shiri was murdered in captivity and has now returned home to her sons, husband, sister, and all her family to rest," the Bibas family said in a statement.

"Despite our fears for their fate, we kept hoping we would get to hug them again, and now we are broken and grieving.

"For 16 months, we sought certainty, and now that we have it, there is no comfort in it, but we hope for the beginning of a closure," the family said in a statement on Instagram.

On Thursday, Hamas handed over four bodies, saying they were of Shiri Bibas, her two young sons, and an elderly hostage.

While the remains of her two sons and the elderly hostage were identified positively, Israeli authorities said the fourth body was not that of Shiri Bibas, sparking anger and grief across the country.

But on Friday, Hamas – which blamed a possible "mix-up" of bodies – handed over new remains to the Red Cross, which now have been identified to be that of Shiri Bibas.

Hamas has long maintained an Israeli air strike killed Bibas and her boys – Kfir and Ariel – early in the war.

The Bibas family became symbols of the hostage ordeal suffered by Israel since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza. (AFP)