Bodies of youngest Hamas hostages said to be among those returned to Israel
Hamas released the bodies of four Israeli hostages on Thursday, including what it says are three members of the Bibas family, who became a symbol of the cruelty of the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel.
Among the bodies believed to be handed over by the Palestinian militant group were those of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, the two youngest captives seized in the attack that started the Israel-Hamas war.
The body of their mother, Shiri Bibas, was also handed over, along with that of Oded Lifshitz, 84, according to the Hostage and Missing Families Forum, which represents the families of those still in Hamas captivity.
The Israel Defense Forces and Israel Security Agency said the bodies were being transferred to them after being received by the Red Cross in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
Israel says the bodies will need to undergo forensic testing before authorities can confirm their identities.
Yarden Bibas, the boys' father and Shiri Bibas's husband, was released on Feb. 1 under the first phase of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. He was held in a different part of Gaza than his wife and children, according to hostages who were with him in captivity and have since been freed.
The Hamas leader in Gaza, Khalil al-Hayya, announced on Tuesday that the bodies of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas would be among those returned this week.
He also announced that six of the remaining living captives would be released this Saturday, including two who have been held in the Gaza Strip for about a decade.
The Israeli prime minister's office confirmed it had reached an agreement on the releases during negotiations held in Cairo last week, but refrained from naming any of the hostages.
Israel had long braced to learn the fate of Kfir Bibas, who was just shy of 9 months old when he was abducted along with his parents and brother Ariel, who was 4 at the time, from their kibbutz, Nir Oz.
In late 2023, Hamas said that Shiri Bibas and the children had been killed by Israeli bombardments. Israel has yet to confirm their deaths.
On Tuesday, the Bibas family said it was 'in turmoil' over the Hamas leader's announcement of the return of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir.
'Until we receive definitive confirmation, our journey is not over,' the family said in a statement.
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum also named the six living hostages slated for release on Saturday: Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Tal Shoham, Hisham Al-Sayed and Avera Mengistu.
'While we feel profound relief at their homecoming, we are devastated by the news that the remains of four of our loved ones will be returned this Thursday,' it said in a statement Tuesday.
Cohen, 27, Shem Tov, 22, and Wenkert, 23, were abducted from a music festival, while Shoham was taken from the community of Kibbutz Beeri, according to the group.
Civilians Al-Sayed and Mengistu have been separately held in Gaza for about a decade after they were kidnapped while crossing the border in 2015 and 2014, respectively.
About 1,200 people were killed and 251 were captured in the Oct. 7 attack, according to Israeli officials. The ensuing military offensive in Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to the local Hamas-run health ministry, and forcibly displaced most of its 2.3 million population.
Saturday's handover, if successful, will mean that four hostages, all presumed dead, are still left in Gaza from the group of 33 scheduled for release under the first phase of the ceasefire deal.
The fragile agreement was reached between Israel and Hamas on Jan. 19 and has so far remained on track with the help of Qatari and Egyptian mediators, despite earlier threats of derailment.
During the first phase of the deal, which will last over a 42-day truce, Hamas has incrementally returned 19 Israeli hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
Last week, Hamas reversed a warning it issued earlier to indefinitely postpone the hostage-prisoner swaps after both sides accused the other of violating the agreement.
The deal was also overshadowed by President Donald Trump 's call to move Palestinians out of Gaza so it can be developed into a waterfront estate.
Negotiations over the second stage of the ceasefire deal, originally slated to begin Feb. 4, will look at securing the release of the remaining 64 hostages and overseeing the administration of post-war Gaza.
Reuters reported Tuesday that an Israeli team had traveled to Cairo, while the security cabinet cleared a high-level Israeli delegation to travel to Qatar to begin talks on the second phase.
'It will happen this week,' Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told reporters in Jerusalem, according to Reuters.
'If we will see there is a constructive dialogue with a possible horizon of getting to an agreement (then) we will make this time framework longer,' he added.
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Telegraph
12 minutes ago
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The Ayatollahs are tottering. Only the BBC hasn't noticed
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It does not remind us that Israel attacked because it is the policy of Iran to destroy it and it has nearly reached the nuclear capacity to do so. Nor does it mention that most of the Iranian attacks target civilians, whereas none of the Israeli ones do. Its reporting also gives the impression that the effect of Iranian bombing of Israel is devastating. It is horrible all right but, so far at least, largely ineffective. The BBC even blames the Israeli government that its citizens are bombed, although it fails to find Israeli victims who endorse this line. Signing off from the scene of an Iranian raid on Bat Yam this morning on the Today programme, Anna Foster complained not about the Iranian raids whose effects she had just seen with her own eyes, but about 'what has been a dangerous and provocative raid on Iran'. The BBC's next trick will be to acclaim 'peace moves'. It would be beyond satire, but not beyond possibility, that it promotes an offer of talks sponsored by President Putin, slyly endorsed by President Trump. Britain owes a huge debt to Israel and Ukraine Western powers, particularly the United States, are often criticised for protecting Israel. In Britain, with the rise of Muslim influence in the Labour Party, large protest marches allege this against the government of the day. Sir Keir Starmer is clearly frightened. As leader of the Opposition, he got off to a good start. In response to the Hamas atrocities of October 7 2023, he immediately supported Israel's right to self-defence, facing down internal critics. As Prime Minister, however, he has bent with his party's wind, as his pro-Gaza MPs rebel. Now the Government backs sanctions against two Israeli cabinet ministers, restricts arms sales to Israel and encourages the idea that Benjamin Netanyahu should be indicted by the International Criminal Court. After Israel attacked Iran last week, Britain's reaction expressed this weakness. Although sending aircraft to the region, the Government would not say whether we were providing our previous air-force protection for Israel against Iranian raids. Sir Keir implicitly criticised Israel, calling for 'a return to diplomacy'. This is hypocritical. Britain has rightly developed a close intelligence relationship with Israel, having a common interest in state and non-state Islamist terrorist threats. Yet publicly it gives Israel no credit. Because of our increasing hostility, there is evidence that Israel no longer trusts us not to leak secrets and may cut us out of them. Even more important is the obvious fact that Iran's possession of an atomic bomb would be extremely dangerous to the region and to the world. Western allied attempts over many years to prevent this by negotiation have failed. Iran has proved incapable of acting in good faith. Its regime is a constant threat to peace. Israel warned of this for decades. Last week, it finally acted, with astonishing accuracy, against a vast range of Iranian installations and individuals. As a result, the extremist theocracy trembles. It may fall. So Israel has protected the West, more than the other way round. Even the United States, by far Israel's most important friend, has equivocated. President Trump, as if it has little to do with him, says 'Both sides may have to fight it out.' Britain has rendered itself almost completely irrelevant. On the other side, Russia, which backs Iran, has done less than nothing for peace, and has lost power in Syria. The great powers have looked small. Only the small power – Israel – has acted on the grand scale required. If it succeeds, it will have altered the balance of power in the Middle East in favour of moderate regimes and in the whole world against Russia, China (which also backs Iran) and Islamist extremism. It gets precious few thanks. There is an analogy here. 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Spectator
14 minutes ago
- Spectator
Iran is too weak to wage a ground war against Israel
As Israel advances its surgical reduction of Iran's nuclear facilities and senior command, and Iran continues to launch missiles randomly at Israeli population centres in response, it is interesting to note what is not happening. Notably absent is any ground element to the war, which is currently being fought entirely between air and missile forces. Israel has effectively reversed two decades of Iranian advance across the Middle East This brings home just how much the picture has changed in Israel's favour over the last 20 months. It also reveals the deeper logic of this war. On 6 October, the Iran-led regional alliance stood as the most powerful strategic axis in the Middle East, pursuing clear goals via proven modes of action. As a result of an ill-fated decision by one of its most minor members (Hamas) to launch a war it could not win, the regional components of this alliance were neutralised. Israel is now seeking to complete the job by pulverising Iran itself. An optimal result would be the fall of the regime. But a battered, isolated Tehran, stripped of its nuclear programme, missile array and allies, would also suffice. I have been tracing the form and nature of Iran's ambitions in the Middle East for the best part of the last twenty years. For most of those years, what I and other observers saw was the slow, incremental and seemingly inexorable advance of Iran's power and influence across the region. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' (IRGC) capacities for irregular warfare and political organisation, coupled with the collapse and fragmentation of governance across a broad swathe of the Middle East, allowed Tehran to table achievement after achievement. In Gaza, Israel's decision – in retrospect flawed – for unilateral withdrawal allowed the Iran-supported, Islamist Hamas movement to sweep aside their enfeebled opponents and assume sole control of the Strip in 2007. In Lebanon, the IRGC proxy Hizballah militia induced a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000. The organisation then emerged as the unchallenged dominant political force in the country in 2008, after fighting a second, inconclusive war against Israel in 2006. In Iraq, the US removal of Saddam Hussein and the subsequent rise of Sunni jihadi insurgency in the form of Isis enabled Iran to mobilise Hezbollah-style Shia militias. They went on to become the most powerful political-military force in the country. In Yemen, the removal of the dictatorship of Ali Abdullah Saleh enabled the Iran-supported Houthis to rise up, take the capital and a large part of the coast. They established an area of control comprising much of the country and most of its population. In Syria, the apparent victory of the Assad regime over the Sunni Islamist insurgency against it meant that this area was maintained as a vital territorial link between Iraq and Lebanon. This raised the possibility for Iran of moving ground forces from Iran in the direction of potential fronts against Israel in Lebanon and Syria, in the event of war. This array meant that on 6 October 2023, on the eve of war, Tehran, thanks to the skills and methods of the IRGC and the blunders of its opponents, had successfully implanted a series of powerful semi-regular militias in neighbouring states, primed and ready for war with Israel. Behind this alliance stood Iran's own capacities, embodied in its missile and nuclear programs. That was how things looked 20 months ago. The direct confrontation between Israel and Iran has now come. What remains of this hard-built array? What ground options does Iran now have in a war with Israel? In Gaza, Hamas has lost territorial control of most of the Strip, and no longer has the ability to fire rockets and missiles at Israel. It remains as a disconnected, fragmented insurgency. It is able to inflict periodic damage on Israeli forces using guerrilla methods. That's where it ends. It has been rendered useless as an instrument able to strike at Israeli population centres. It is also no longer serviceable as a semi-regular military force of the type that carried out the massacres of 7 October 2023. In Lebanon, as a result of the direct combat against Israel in the autumn of 2023, Hezbollah is a broken shadow of the powerful, semi-regular military painstakingly built up between 2000 and 2024. Its historic leadership has been targeted and killed by Israel. Its mid-level cadres devastated by successful Israeli clandestine warfare and subsequent targeting. Its long-range missile array targeted from the air and largely destroyed, its south Lebanon positions systematically reduced by Israeli ground forces. The result: Hezbollah can no longer be employed as an asset by Iran. 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Scottish Sun
26 minutes ago
- Scottish Sun
Inside Iran's concrete-encased nuke fortress buried under a mountain & ringed by air defences that Israel MUST destroy
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) IRAN's most heavily fortified nuclear base which Israel must destroy is hidden deep inside a mountain and surrounded by air defences. The infamous Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant is the paragon of the Ayatollah's nuclear programme and a symbol of the regime's technological capabilities. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 13 Iran's heavily fortified underground nuclear base is unscathed following Israeli strikes Credit: AFP 13 The Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant is the crown jewel of Iran's nuclear programme Credit: AFP 13 Strikes between Israel and Iran come after Tel Aviv accused Tehran of making a nuclear bomb Credit: AFP 13 Located just 100 miles south of the capital Tehran, Fordow is one of two nuclear enrichment sites in the country. The other, which is based in Natanz, was reportedly partially destroyed as part of Israel's operation Rising Lion. The precise missile blitz aimed at crippling Tehran's nuclear weapon developments come as Iran and Israel teeter on the brink of all out war. Both sides continue to exchange deadly missile strikes, following Tel Aviv accusing Tehran of trying to develop a nuclear bomb last week. Despite Israeli airstrikes successfully killing 14 Iranian nuclear scientists, wiping out top military brass and destroying key buildings - Fordow remains unscathed. Buried deep inside the mountains with key facilities embedded up to 100 metres underground, Fordow remains to be a challenging target. Its key purpose is pumping out enriched uranium - critical to developing nuclear warheads. Centrifuges hidden deep down in the bunker are reportedly enriching uranium at up to 60 per cent, just below the crucial 90 per cent needed to create a nuclear weapon. Explaining the goals of operation Red Lion, Israeli ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter said that "the entire operation… really has to be completed with the elimination of Fordow.' The key bunker has even been branded as the 'the be-all and end-all of Iran's nuclear operation'. Iran launches missiles at Israel after 'revenge' vow over nuclear site attacks Former Middle East diplomat Brett McGurk said: 'If you don't get Fordow, you haven't eliminated their ability to produce weapons-grade material.' Protected within an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp base, the mountainous site is heavily surveilled. Guard towers stand 25 metres apart, primed air defences ring the perimeter, and a support headquarters is stationed nearby. Satellite imagery shows two massive rings of steel fencing around the site - each with heavily armed checkpoints along the entrance road. Up to three tunnel entrances can be seen in the centre - each one heavily guarded. 13 Firefighters work at the site on a strike in Tel Aviv Credit: Reuters 13 The base is heavily protected by air defences and has been built into a mountain Credit: AFP 13 Fordow is protected against a range of conventional bomb attacks and could potentially even fend off hugely powerful so-called "bunker buster" bombs. The world's largest bomb is the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, delivered by B-2 bombers and exclusively made by the US. These may be enough to reach the base's deepest points, according to reports. But Washington has made its stance clear on the unilateral operation Red Lion, saying it would not directly get involved in Israel's conflict with Iran. The Ayatollah's pariah state has been enriching uranium at Fordow since September 2011. The site's existence was revealed two years before that, when British, French and US intelligence reports detailed a secret facility 'inconsistent with a peaceful [nuclear] programme.' The Islamic Republic has long denied seeking to develop nuclear weapons. 13 A satellite image shows the Natanz nuclear facility after an Israeli airstrike in Iran June 14 Credit: Reuters 13 Workers at an enrichment control room at a facility in Natanz, Iran's other nuclear enrichment base Credit: ITV 13 But last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that Iran had been producing 60 per cent purity uranium. This uranium would be capable of being further enriched to the 90 per cent weapons grade benchmark. Israel said this was proof that Iran was building a nuclear bomb -before launching their sophisticated missile blitz. On Monday, Pakistan warned they would nuke Israel, according to a senior Iranian general amid the deadly missile salvos across the Middle East. Strikes have been raining down across both countries for the last four days - with the US embassy in Tel Aviv now being damaged. Which Iranian military chiefs and scientists have been killed? ISRAEL has dealt a major blow to Iran's command chain - wiping out several of its top brass. Key nuclear scientists have also been eliminated in Israel's overnight strikes. Those killed include: Generals Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri , chief of staff of the armed forces and the second-highest commander after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , chief of staff of the armed forces and the second-highest commander after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Gen. Hossein Salami , commander in chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps , commander in chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Gen. Gholamali Rashid , deputy commander in chief of the armed forces , deputy commander in chief of the armed forces Ali Shamkhan , key adviser and confidant of Khamenei , key adviser and confidant of Khamenei Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC Aerospace Forces Nuclear scientists Fereydoun Abbasi , the former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran , the former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Dr Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, theoretical physicist and president of the Islamic Azad University in Tehran Tension is now skyrocketing as the conflict threatens to spiral into a wider regional war with Pakistan also calling for the Islamic world to back Iran. America could also be pulled into the conflict, with Donald Trump warning the "full strength and might" of the US military would be used if American assets were targeted. Damage to the embassy was done during a third night of fierce missile exchange between Iran and Israel, with Benjamin Netanyahu claiming "regime change" in Tehran is imminent. Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador in Israel, said the embassy in Tel Aviv was damaged 'from concussions of Iranian missile hits' near the building but that no personnel were injured. Benjamin Netanyahu said just before his latest blitz that Iran is now "very weak" as he warned of an impending "regime change" in Tehran. 13 B-2 Bombers may be able to strike deep enough on Fordow base 13 Missiles launched from Iran are intercepted as seen from Ashkelon, Israel Credit: Reuters
