Israel stated on Friday that one of many our bodies Hamas handed over as a part of the cease-fire deal didn’t belong to an Israeli girl taken hostage in 2023, because the Palestinian militant group had claimed.
The revelation prompted additional alarm over the way forward for the brittle truce and hostage-for-prisoner swap deal between Hamas and Israel. Hamas acknowledged there could have been a mix-up.
Right here’s what we all know thus far.
Who have been the hostages?
Hamas stated on Thursday that it had handed over the stays of 4 hostages: Shiri Bibas, 32; her two youngsters, Ariel, 4, and Kfir Bibas, lower than a 12 months previous; and Oded Lifshitz, 83. All 4 have been kidnapped from Nir Oz, a village close to Gaza that was devastated in Hamas’s shock assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
For a lot of Israelis, the Bibas household had turn into emblematic of the brutality of the Hamas assault. Footage of a terrified Ms. Bibas clutching her two youngsters whereas being led away by Palestinian gunmen has been seared into the Israeli public consciousness.
Hamas asserted that every one 4 hostages have been killed in Israeli airstrikes. However Israel stated that three of the 4 returned on Thursday — which have been recognized via DNA testing as belonging to Mr. Lifshitz and the 2 Bibas youngsters — had been murdered by their captors.
Daniel Hagari, the Israeli navy spokesman, stated the Bibas youngsters’s captors had killed them “with their naked fingers.” He stated Israel had shared the forensic and intelligence findings with its allies.
However neither Israel nor Hamas had but introduced proof for public scrutiny.
What occurred on Thursday?
Hamas handed 4 coffins to the Worldwide Committee of the Crimson Cross in a televised ceremony. Every coffin bore the picture of a captive whose physique was alleged to be turned over to Israel, together with that of Ms. Bibas.
The show was condemned internationally, together with by Volker Türk, the United Nations excessive commissioner for human rights, who known as it “abhorrent and merciless.”
Israeli officers introduced the stays to the nation’s fundamental forensic institute in Tel Aviv, the place three have been confirmed to be whom Hamas stated they have been.
However the fourth was an “nameless, unidentified corpse,” the Israeli navy stated early Friday, ruling out that the stays have been these of Ms. Bibas.
What are Israel and Hamas saying?
Israel has known as the failure to return Ms. Bibas’s stays a extreme breach of the cease-fire. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Hamas “would pay the total worth for this merciless and harsh violation.”
Hamas acknowledged in a press release “the potential of a mistake or a mixing up of corpses” and stated it might examine, calling on Israel to return the physique. The group stated it was dedicated to shifting ahead with the cease-fire settlement.
What’s subsequent?
Israel and Hamas have been set for an additional hostage-for-prisoner change on Saturday — one that may free six Israeli hostages held in Gaza for quite a few Palestinians jailed by Israel. Though Israeli officers expressed outrage over Ms. Bibas’s destiny, they appeared longing for the subsequent swap to go forward as deliberate.
On Friday, the Hamas-linked Prisoner Info Workplace stated that greater than 600 detainees could be launched in change. They have been to incorporate 50 Palestinian serving life sentences for lethal assaults in opposition to Israelis and one other 60 serving lengthy sentences, the workplace stated.
The remaining embrace greater than 400 different Gazans detained in the course of the warfare, the workplace stated. These Gazans had usually been imprisoned with out formal costs and have been typically held incommunicado for lengthy durations.
It was unclear how that change would go forward given Israel’s accusation that Hamas didn’t uphold its finish of the deal.
Even when the swap on Saturday does go ahead, huge questions hover over the way forward for the truce, which paused 15 months of devastating combating in Gaza that killed tens of hundreds of Palestinian civilians and combatants.
The primary part of the cease-fire deal expires in lower than two weeks, and Israel and Hamas have but to agree on phrases to increase it to a second part.
