Center East disaster dwell: stays of 4 hostages, together with mom and two kids, returned to Israel | Israel-Gaza warfare
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Hamas palms our bodies of 4 hostages to Purple Cross in Gaza
The handover of the 4 our bodies from Hamas to the Purple Cross is now full.
The autos are on their strategy to Israel, and the gang in Khan Younis is starting to disperse.
Key occasions
Attorneys for British hostage households say our bodies signify “4 complete failures”
Attorneys for the households of British hostages say the discharge of 4 our bodies represents “4 complete failures”.
Adam Rose, a associate at Mishcon de Reya and Adam Wagner, a barrister at Doughty Avenue chambers, launched the assertion right this moment.
“Right now, 20 February 2025, is one in all immense unhappiness, and of failure. It seems that 503 days after they have been taken from their properties by Hamas terrorists, the our bodies of 4 individuals have been returned to Israel”, they wrote.
“We can’t verify but whose our bodies have been returned, however 4 our bodies signify 4 entire worlds, and 4 complete failures – as we stated after we took the British hostage households to fulfill with Prime Ministers Rishi Sunak and Sir Kier Starmer in Downing Avenue: that is what failure appears like.
It got here as no shock that the terrorists selected to make a grotesque pantomime of the handover of the our bodies this morning. Hostage taking is inherently abusive and undignified – that’s the reason it’s a warfare crime.”
Rose and Wagner have been advising the households of ten hostages held in Gaza who’re British or have shut hyperlinks to the UK – 5 of who had been freed, three had been murdered and two remained in captivity.
STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BY LAWYERS FOR THE BRITISH HOSTAGE FAMILIES
20 February 2025
Right now, 20 February 2025, is one in all immense unhappiness, and of failure.
It seems that 503 days after they have been taken from their properties by Hamas terrorists, the our bodies of 4 individuals have… pic.twitter.com/B9EKEKZnlY— Adam Wagner (@AdamWagner1) February 20, 2025
The Israeli army says the coffins of the 4 deceased hostages which have now been transported into Israel.
It additionally stated that after the hostages have been handed over by the Purple Cross, the coffins have been scanned for explosives.
A couple of hours after Hamas stated it will return the our bodies of Israeli hostages Shiri Bibas and her two little kids on Thursday, her sister-in-law stated she had not given up hope of seeing them return house, alive.
“I ask you to not eulogise my household but,” Ofri Bibas Levy posted on Fb. “We have now been hoping for 16 months and we won’t hand over hope now.”
However when Hamas unveiled black coffins on a stage underneath a rain-washed gray sky in southern Gaza, with the images of the 2 Bibas kids and their mom pinned onto them, one on every of the caskets, hope in Israel turned to grief.
Shiri Bibas and her ginger-haired sons, Ariel and child Kfir, have develop into a logo for Israelis of the ruthlessness of the October 7, 2023 assault, once they have been kidnapped by Palestinian militants from their kibbutz, Nir Oz, and brought to Gaza.
One in 4 Nir Oz residents have been both killed or kidnapped that day. Photographs of a terrified Shiri Bibas surrounded by gunmen and clutching her boys, aged 4 and 9 months on the time, circulated on social media inside hours of the kidnapping.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is heading to Saudi Arabia, state TV reported on Thursday, and is predicted to debate Gaza developments whereas there.
Arab states plan to debate a post-war plan for Gaza reconstruction, presumably to counter U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to redevelop the strip underneath U.S. management, Reuters reviews.
The army deliberate to carry a small funeral ceremony, on the request of the households, earlier than transferring the our bodies to a laboratory for formal identification utilizing DNA, a course of that might take as much as two days, AP reviews. Solely then will the households be given the ultimate notification.
Israeli channels didn’t broadcast the handover. In Hostage Sq. in Tel Aviv, the place Israelis have gathered to observe the discharge of residing hostages, a big display screen confirmed a compilation of images and movies of Lifshitz and the Bibas household, together with a chuckling child Kfir and the household dressed up in Batman costumes.
Israelis have celebrated the return of 24 residing hostages in current weeks underneath a tenuous ceasefire that paused over 15 months of warfare. However the handover on Thursday was a grim reminder of those that died in captivity because the talks main as much as the truce dragged on for over a yr.
It may additionally present impetus for negotiations on the second stage of the ceasefire which have hardly begun. The primary part is ready to finish at first of March.
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 say sorry. Forgiveness for not defending you on that horrible day. Forgiveness for not bringing you house safely. Could 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 say sorry. Forgiveness for not defending you on that horrible day. Forgiveness for not bringing you house safely.
Could…
— 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 lady.
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 resolution with the Palestinians and a 2011 deal that exchanged greater than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Israel’s army says it has obtained 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 inside safety company in Gaza.
A press release from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s workplace stated Israel had “obtained 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 might take a couple of hours or perhaps a few days.
Hamas palms our bodies of 4 hostages to Purple Cross in Gaza
The handover of the 4 our bodies from Hamas to the Purple Cross is now full.
The autos are on their strategy to Israel, and the gang in Khan Younis is starting to disperse.
Listed here 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 Purple Cross autos.
Stay TV footage, which we’re selecting to not share, exhibits the Purple 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.
Not like a few of the earlier handovers, the scene seems calm and with out celebration.
A reminder of the our bodies being handed over right this moment. They’re:
Shiri Bibas her two kids, Ariel and Kfir, who Hamas says have been killed in an Israeli airstrike, in addition to Oded Lifshitz, 83.
Purple Cross autos have now arrived on the website of the handover, dwell TV footage exhibits.
A Purple 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 kids residing 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 referred to as Abdullah, after the documentary was aired on BBC Two on Monday night.
A brand new textual content connected to the movie, Gaza: How you can 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 crew 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 gaggle of 45 distinguished Jewish journalists and members of the media, together with current and former BBC employees, signed a letter to the BBC director normal, 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 this moment’s launch, Hamas stated it is able to launch all its remaining hostages in a single trade if the ceasefire settlement with Israel strikes ahead to a second part subsequent month.
The supply got here because the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, signalled his readiness to speak a couple of 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 steer 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 closing 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 may full the primary six-week part of the ceasefire, as a result of finish on 1 March, leaving an extra 58 hostages within the palms 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 prompt on Wednesday it was ready to speed up the method.
Opening abstract
Hey, we’re restarting our dwell protection of the Center East.
Hamas is ready to return the our bodies of 4 Israeli hostages on Thursday, together with a mom and her two kids 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 kids, 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 warfare. 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 website 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 observe the discharge of residing 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 trade if the ceasefire settlement with Israel strikes ahead to a second part subsequent month. A senior Hamas official, Taher al-Nunu, informed Agence France-Presse “We have now knowledgeable the mediators that Hamas is able to launch all hostages in a single batch in the course of the second part of the settlement, moderately than in phases, as within the present first part.”
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The supply got here because the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, signalled his readiness to speak a couple of 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 steer 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 concept, however they may nonetheless disagree over who will govern the Palestinian territory and who pays 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 Purple 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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