Palestinians collect as Hamas fighters deploy forward of handing over the our bodies of 4 Israeli hostages, together with a mom and her two kids, who had lengthy been feared lifeless, to the Purple Cross in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip on Thursday.
Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
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Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
TEL AVIV, Israel — Hamas has handed over what it stated are the our bodies of 4 Israeli hostages, together with a mom and her two younger sons who had turn into a logo in Israel of the plight of hostages held in Gaza. The our bodies will bear 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 in the course of the Gaza warfare.
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 kids had turn into a logo of the hostage battle in Israel all through the warfare, with posters of their faces plastered alongside metropolis streets and commemorations held on the kids’s birthdays.
Lifshitz was a retired journalist and peace activist who helped discovered the kibbutz Nir Oz. He volunteered with Street 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 aren’t broadcasting the Hamas handover ceremony
Their stays had been handed to the Worldwide Committee of the Purple Cross at a staged ceremony close to a cemetery within the southern Gaza metropolis of Khan Younis. Giant crowds gathered as masked Hamas gunmen presided over the ceremony at a stage with 4 coffins draped in black, flanked by giant 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 warfare, different hostages could be returned in coffins. Israeli media retailers stated they’d not publish pictures from the Hamas ceremony out of respect for the lifeless hostages’ households.
The Mujahideen Brigades, a small Palestinian militant faction in Gaza, stated it held Shiri Bibas and her kids alive in Gaza and that they had been killed in an Israeli airstrike early within the warfare 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 likely 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 in the course of the warfare, 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 loss of life.
In trade for the our bodies, Israel is predicted to launch greater than 600 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, as outlined within the fragile ceasefire settlement between Israel and Hamas. Amongst these to be launched are prisoners serving life sentences for lethal assaults towards Israelis, in addition to girls and minors detained in Gaza in the course of the warfare and held with out cost or sentencing.
Hamas agreed to speed up hostage releases this week
That is the seventh such hostage-for-prisoner trade within the month-old ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Hamas has additionally agreed to launch all six remaining dwelling Israeli hostages it had dedicated to releasing by the top 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 trade, Israel is acceding to Hamas’ request to permit heavy equipment to unearth the our bodies of Palestinians buried underneath rubble. It is usually permitting cellular houses into Gaza for these whose houses had been destroyed in Israeli strikes in the course of the 15-month-war sparked by the Hamas assault, in keeping 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 in the course of the warfare and longtime prisoners convicted for lethal assaults towards Israelis.
Dozens of hostages stay in Gaza
The primary part of the ceasefire is ready to finish March 2, and there’ll nonetheless be 59 hostages remaining in Gaza, almost half of them confirmed lifeless, in keeping with Israel. Talks in regards to the subsequent part of the deal – which had been supposed to start weeks in the past – have but to happen.
Hamas says it is able to “engage immediately” in negotiations to increase the ceasefire and launch all remaining Israeli hostages in a single batch and never in phases, in trade for Israel releasing extra Palestinian prisoners.
“These steps reflect the seriousness of [Hamas] in implementing the terms of the agreement as stated, and in response to the efforts of the mediators,” Hamas stated in an announcement.
However far-right members of Israel’s governing coalition oppose additional hostage-prisoner swaps and name for Israel to resume preventing in Gaza towards Hamas.
The newest 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 keeping with Israeli authorities. Within the ensuing 15 months of warfare, greater than 48,000 Palestinians in Gaza had been killed in Israeli strikes, in keeping 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.
