By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hamas on Thursday released the bodies of four Israeli hostages, said to include a mother and her two children who have long been feared dead and had come to embody the nation’s agony following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
The remains were said to be of Shiri Bibas and her two children, Ariel and Kfir, as well as Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was abducted. Kfir was the youngest captive taken that day. Hamas has said all four were killed along with their guards in Israeli airstrikes.
“The heart of an entire nation breaks,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday in anticipation of the bodies being returned to Israel.
Israel and Hamas have yet to negotiate the second and more difficult phase of the ceasefire, and the first ends in early March. Palestinians and Arab countries have universally rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to remove the Palestinian population from Gaza and take over the territory.
Since the war in Gaza began, more than 50,000 people have died in Gaza and Lebanon and nearly 70% of the buildings in Gaza have been devastated, according to health ministries in Gaza and Lebanon. Around 1,200 people were killed in Israel during the Oct. 7 attack.
___
Here’s the latest:
Israel’s military holds short funeral ceremony after receiving coffins from Hamas
The Israeli military held a short funeral ceremony on Thursday after receiving coffins from Hamas said to contain the remains of four hostages.
A military rabbi read a Kaddish prayer and chapters from the Book of Psalms, based on a request from the families. Troops fired ceremonial shots into the air.
Prior to the ceremony, the coffins were checked for explosives or dangerous substances.
After the prayers, the remains were transported to a laboratory in Israel where they will undergo DNA testing, which could take up to two days. Only then would there be an official confirmation of the deaths.
Hamas begins handover of remains of 4 Israeli hostages
Hamas militants displayed four black coffins on a stage surrounded by militant banners ahead of the handover Thursday of hostages’ remains.
The coffins were then handed over to Red Cross vehicles at the scene to accept the bodies and return them to Israel.
The handover is part of a ceasefire that paused Israel’s 15-month military offensive in Gaza, launched after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
▶ Read more about the ceasefire in Gaza.
