Israel’s Bibas family has announced that remains returned to Israel the day before were identified to be of hostage Shiri Bibas, AFP reports.

“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.