Palestinians collect as Hamas fighters deploy forward of handing over the our bodies of 4 Israeli hostages, together with a mom and her two youngsters, who had lengthy been feared useless, to the Pink Cross in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip on Thursday.
Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
cover caption
toggle caption
Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
TEL AVIV, Israel — Hamas has handed over what it stated are the bodies of four Israeli hostages, together with a mom and her two younger sons who had develop into an emblem in Israel of the plight of hostages held in Gaza. The our bodies will endure forensic testing in Israel to verify their identification.
The our bodies are believed to be Shiri Bibas, 33, her sons Ariel and Kfir, ages 4 and 9 months on the time of their seize, and Oded Lifshitz, 84. All had been taken hostage within the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led assault on Israel from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Hamas says they had been killed in Israeli strikes during the Gaza war.
Shiri Bibas’ husband Yarden was additionally taken hostage with the household. He was launched alive earlier this month. The Bibas household and their two small redheaded youngsters had develop into an emblem of the hostage wrestle in Israel all through the battle, with posters of their faces plastered alongside metropolis streets and commemorations held on the youngsters’s birthdays.
Lifshitz was a retired journalist and peace activist who helped discovered the kibbutz Nir Oz. He volunteered with Highway to Restoration, an Israeli group of volunteers who drive Palestinians to hospital appointments in Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution. His spouse, Yocheved, 85, was additionally taken hostage and freed after about two weeks.
Israeli media retailers usually are not broadcasting the Hamas handover ceremony
Their stays had been handed to the Worldwide Committee of the Pink Cross at a staged ceremony close to a cemetery within the southern Gaza metropolis of Khan Younis. Massive crowds gathered as masked Hamas gunmen presided over the ceremony at a stage with 4 coffins draped in black, flanked by massive posters with messages in Hebrew and English.
One poster depicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a fanged vampire. One other threatened that if Israel resumed the Gaza battle, different hostages could be returned in coffins. Israeli media retailers stated they might not publish photographs from the Hamas ceremony out of respect for the useless hostages’ households.
The Mujahideen Brigades, a small Palestinian militant faction in Gaza, stated it held Shiri Bibas and her youngsters alive in Gaza and that they had been killed in an Israeli airstrike early within the battle in late November 2023. Hamas says Lifshitz was additionally killed in an Israeli strike whereas he was held hostage in Gaza.
Israel had not beforehand confirmed their deaths, leaving some hope in Israel they had been nonetheless alive. On Wednesday night, Israel stated it was knowledgeable of the identities of the 4 our bodies being handed over.
The hostage our bodies will probably be pushed to a Tel Aviv forensic institute
Right now’s launch is the primary time Hamas has handed over the our bodies of hostages through the battle, though a number of have been recovered by Israeli forces in Gaza and returned to Israel.
Israeli troops in Gaza are anticipated to obtain the hostages’ our bodies, switch them to coffins draped in Israeli flags, and maintain a brief memorial ceremony earlier than driving the coffins throughout the border to Israel. Israelis gathered alongside roads in southern Israel the place the coffins are to be transported to an Israeli forensic institute in Tel Aviv, which can look at the our bodies and supply official identification, and search to find out the reason for dying.
In change for the our bodies, Israel is predicted to launch greater than 600 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, as outlined within the fragile ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. Amongst these to be launched are prisoners serving life sentences for lethal assaults in opposition to Israelis, in addition to girls and minors detained in Gaza through the battle and held with out cost or sentencing.
Hamas agreed to speed up hostage releases this week
That is the seventh such hostage-for-prisoner exchange within the month-old ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Hamas has additionally agreed to launch all six remaining residing Israeli hostages it had dedicated to releasing by the tip of February this Saturday, together with two who’ve been held for round a decade. The group has additionally dedicated to releasing 4 extra our bodies of hostages subsequent week.
In change, Israel is acceding to Hamas’ request to permit heavy equipment to unearth the our bodies of Palestinians buried below rubble. Additionally it is permitting cellular houses into Gaza for these whose houses had been destroyed in Israeli strikes through the 15-month-war sparked by the Hamas assault, in line with an Israeli official who was not licensed to talk publicly in regards to the association.
Israel says these agreements had been reached by way of mediators throughout negotiations in Cairo. As a part of the deal, Israel will proceed to launch Palestinian detainees arrested in Gaza through the battle and longtime prisoners convicted for lethal assaults in opposition to Israelis.
Dozens of hostages stay in Gaza
The primary section of the ceasefire is ready to finish March 2, and there’ll nonetheless be 59 hostages remaining in Gaza, practically half of them confirmed useless, in line with Israel. Talks in regards to the subsequent section of the deal – which had been supposed to start weeks in the past – have but to happen.
Hamas says it is able to “have interaction instantly” in negotiations to increase the ceasefire and launch all remaining Israeli hostages in a single batch and never in phases, in change for Israel releasing extra Palestinian prisoners.
“These steps mirror the seriousness of [Hamas] in implementing the phrases of the settlement as acknowledged, and in response to the efforts of the mediators,” Hamas stated in a press release.
However far-right members of Israel’s governing coalition oppose additional hostage-prisoner swaps and name for Israel to resume preventing in Gaza in opposition to Hamas.
The most recent Israel-Hamas battle started on Oct. 7, 2023, when militants from Hamas and different teams broke by way of the border with Israel and killed some 1,200 folks and took greater than 250 folks hostage, in line with Israeli authorities. Within the ensuing 15 months of battle, greater than 48,000 Palestinians in Gaza had been killed in Israeli strikes, in line with Gaza well being authorities.
Itay Stern in Tel Aviv, Hadeel Al-Shalchi in Ramallah, Ahmed Abuhamda in Cairo, and Yanal Jabarin in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
