Center East disaster dwell: Hamas releases our bodies of 4 Israeli hostages, together with mom and two youngsters | Israel-Gaza struggle
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Hamas arms our bodies of 4 hostages to Pink Cross in Gaza
The handover of the 4 our bodies from Hamas to the Pink Cross is now full.
The autos are on their strategy to Israel, and the group in Khan Younis is starting to disperse.
Key occasions
Israeli president asks for forgiveness after our bodies of hostages returned
Isaac Herzog, the President of the State of Israel, has requested for “forgiveness” for not defending the nation’s residents within the Oct 7 assault, as our bodies of hostages have been returned.
Posting on ‘X’, Herzog wrote: “Agony. Ache. There aren’t any phrases. Our hearts — the hearts of a complete nation — lie in tatters.
“On behalf of the State of Israel, I bow my head and apologize. Forgiveness for not defending you on that horrible day. Forgiveness for not bringing you dwelling safely. Might their reminiscence be a blessing.”
Agony. Ache. There aren’t any phrases.
Our hearts — the hearts of a complete nation — lie in tatters.
On behalf of the State of Israel, I bow my head and apologize. Forgiveness for not defending you on that horrible day. Forgiveness for not bringing you dwelling safely.
Might…
— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) February 20, 2025
Oded Lifshitz was 83 when he was kidnapped from Nir Oz, the kibbutz he helped discovered. His spouse, Yocheved, 85 on the time, was seized with him and launched two weeks later, together with one other aged girl.
Lifshitz was a former journalist. In an op-ed he printed in left-leaning Haaretz in January 2019, titled “Defender of Israel He Is Not”, he questioned Netanyahu’s safety credentials and criticised his insurance policies, together with on Hamas and Gaza.
Amongst what he listed as Netanyahu’s coverage failures, Lifshitz famous his rejection of the two-state answer with the Palestinians and a 2011 deal that exchanged greater than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, together with
Israel’s army says it has acquired stays of captives handed over by Hamas as a part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.
It stated that “the hostages’ our bodies have been handed over” to it and the Shin Guess inner safety company in Gaza.
An announcement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s workplace stated Israel had “acquired the caskets of 4 fallen hostages”.
Following the handover of the our bodies, the stays might be moved into coffins draped with the Israeli flag and a military rabbi will preside over a brief ceremony.
They are going to then be taken to Israel’s nationwide forensic institute to be recognized, a course of that would take just a few hours or perhaps a few days.
Hamas arms our bodies of 4 hostages to Pink Cross in Gaza
The handover of the 4 our bodies from Hamas to the Pink Cross is now full.
The autos are on their strategy to Israel, and the group in Khan Younis is starting to disperse.
Listed below are some extra pictures from Khan Younis:
After briefly being displayed on stage, the 4 coffins are actually being carried by Hamas fighters to the Pink Cross autos.
Stay TV footage, which we’re selecting to not share, reveals the Pink Cross autos making ready to obtain the our bodies of the hostages.
Along with Hamas fighters, there’s a giant crowd of civilians across the autos in southern Gaza.
In contrast to among the earlier handovers, the scene seems calm and with out celebration.
A reminder of the our bodies being handed over right now. They’re:
Shiri Bibas her two youngsters, Ariel and Kfir, who Hamas says have been killed in an Israeli airstrike, in addition to Oded Lifshitz, 83.
Pink Cross autos have now arrived on the web site of the handover, dwell TV footage reveals.
A Pink Cross official is now on a stage, ready by Hamas, signing paperwork.
Hamas members have gathered in Gaza forward of the handover:
Donna Ferguson
The BBC has been requested to take away a documentary about youngsters dwelling in Gaza from BBC iPlayer after it emerged the movie’s 13-year-old narrator is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, a deputy agriculture minister within the territory’s Hamas-run authorities.
The company stated that it had found the household connections of the movie’s English-speaking narrator, a toddler known as Abdullah, after the documentary was aired on BBC Two on Monday night.
A brand new textual content hooked up to the movie, Gaza: The best way to Survive a Warzone, reads: “The narrator of this movie is 13-year-old Abdullah. His father has labored as a deputy agriculture minister for the Hamas-run authorities in Gaza. The manufacturing workforce had full editorial management of filming with Abdullah.”
The choice got here after the connection was uncovered in a blogpost by an antisemitism researcher, David Collier, on Tuesday and reported on within the Jewish Chronicle.
A bunch of 45 outstanding Jewish journalists and members of the media, together with current and former BBC workers, signed a letter to the BBC director common, Tim Davie, demanding the documentary be “eliminated” from iPlayer and questioning whether or not the movie violated Ofcom guidelines.
Hamas presents handover of all hostages to Israel if subsequent part of ceasefire agreed
Julian Borger
Forward of right now’s launch, Hamas stated it is able to launch all its remaining hostages in a single alternate if the ceasefire settlement with Israel strikes ahead to a second part subsequent month.
The provide got here because the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, signalled his readiness to speak a few second part of the Gaza ceasefire after an prolonged delay, by appointing one in all his closest advisers, Ron Dermer, a US-born cupboard minister and former ambassador to Washington, to guide the Israeli delegation to the talks.
Dermer replaces the heads of the Mossad and the Shin Guess safety service, who’ve led the negotiations till now and have ceaselessly been at odds with Netanyahu over his reluctance to maneuver ahead with the ceasefire.
Within the ultimate steps of the primary part, Hamas will hand over the our bodies of 4 Israeli hostages on Thursday, together with these of two younger boys from the identical household. The group will launch six hostages on Sunday after which switch 4 extra our bodies subsequent Thursday.
That can full the primary six-week part of the ceasefire, as a result of finish on 1 March, leaving an extra 58 hostages within the arms of Hamas and allied militant teams in Gaza. Israel believes that 34 of the remaining hostages are useless.
The agreed plan for the second part was for hostages and our bodies of the useless to be exchanged for Palestinian detainees and prisoners in staggered teams. However Hamas urged on Wednesday it was ready to speed up the method.
Opening abstract
Hiya, we’re restarting our dwell protection of the Center East.
Hamas is about to return the our bodies of 4 Israeli hostages on Thursday, together with a mom and her two youngsters who’ve lengthy been feared useless and had come to embody the nation’s agony following the 7 October 2023 assault.
The stays to be launched from the Gaza Strip are of Shiri Bibas and her two youngsters, Ariel and Kfir. Kfir was the youngest captive taken that day. Hamas has stated all three have been killed in an Israeli airstrike early within the struggle. The militant group additionally plans to launch the physique of Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was kidnapped.
“The center of a complete nation breaks,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated Wednesday in anticipation of the our bodies being returned to Israel.
Hundreds of individuals, together with giant numbers of masked and armed fighters from Hamas and different factions, gathered on the handover web site on the outskirts of the southern Gaza metropolis of Khan Younis, the place giant banners had been arrange, together with one exhibiting a picture of coffins draped in Israeli flags.
There have been no plans to broadcast the handover dwell in Hostage Sq. in Tel Aviv, the place Israelis have gathered to look at the discharge of dwelling hostages. The sq. was empty because it rained on and off in each places, that are about 100 km aside.
In different key developments:
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Hamas has stated it is able to launch all its remaining hostages in a single alternate if the ceasefire settlement with Israel strikes ahead to a second part subsequent month. A senior Hamas official, Taher al-Nunu, instructed Agence France-Presse “We’ve knowledgeable the mediators that Hamas is able to launch all hostages in a single batch throughout the second part of the settlement, slightly than in levels, as within the present first part.”
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The provide got here because the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, signalled his readiness to speak a few second part of the Gaza ceasefire after an prolonged delay, by appointing one in all his closest advisers, Ron Dermer, a US-born cupboard minister and former ambassador to Washington, to guide the Israeli delegation to the talks. Dermer replaces the heads of the Mossad and the Shin Guess safety service, who’ve led the negotiations till now and have ceaselessly been at odds with Netanyahu over his reluctance to maneuver ahead with the ceasefire.
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Arab leaders will collect in Saudi Arabia on Friday to counter President Donald Trump’s plan for US management of Gaza and the expulsion of its inhabitants, diplomatic and authorities sources stated. The plan stirred uncommon unity amongst Arab states which roundly rejected the thought, however they may nonetheless disagree over who will govern the Palestinian territory and who can pay for reconstruction.
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US secretary of state Marco Rubio met on Wednesday with the chief of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, after talks in Israel and in Saudi Arabia. The UAE has been key in mediating between Israel and Gaza. Wednesday’s assembly included discussions on synthetic intelligence, the Gaza Strip, Syria, Lebanon and the Pink Sea, which had been the location of assaults by Yemen’s Houthi rebels till the Gaza ceasefire a state division spokesperson stated.
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