CAIRO (AP) — A top Hamas leader says the terror group will release six living Israeli hostages on Saturday and the bodies of four hostages on Thursday, including the remains of the Bibas family that has become symbols of Israeli suffering in the war.
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The fate of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, reflected the feeling of helplessness as dozens of hostages remain in Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Israel has said it is extremely concerned about their condition but has not confirmed their deaths.
Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya, in prerecorded remarks on Tuesday, did not elaborate beyond saying that the “Bibas family” would be included in the handover of four bodies.
The six to be released on Saturday are the last living hostages to be freed under the first phase of the ceasefire in Gaza. Three hostages had been expected to be freed on Saturday. It was not clear why Hamas changed the plan.
The warring sides have yet to negotiate the second and more difficult phase, in which Hamas would release dozens more hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.
The hostage releases have come in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Baruch Dayan Haemes. It was obvious for a while that the Bibas family was no longer amongst the living, but the confirmation is gut wrenching. May Hashem give Yarden the strength that he gave to our grandparents after the Holocaust to rebuild and live a full life again. Klal Yisroel is with you.
How can Jews remain calm with mother and her little sons were murdered in captivity? Gaza must shake like never before.
As soon as the Bibas families bodies are returned, go back in Gaza, kill all the men, and send the women and children to Egypt.
How dare they?
How you kill a baby you monsters .
If there are no more confirmed living hostages at this point, go in and bulldoze the rest of Gaza. Expedite all the Gazans who want to get out voluntarily, and force the rest thru the Egyptian border. These people have forfeited their right to live as Israel’s neighbors. Go live a hateful life elsewhere
To all commenters : regarding those holy Bibas HYD : You are ALL absolutely right .Gaza must be SHAKEN and flattened!
May these Hamas savages suffer painful deaths and then spend eternity in the worst part of gehenom.
“The warring sides”. This is an absolutely disgusting way of trying to portray this as some balanced battle, rather than a brutal attack on civilians who were kidnapped or murdered, and Israel is desperately trying to get back whom they can, at a tremendously steep price of capitulating to the outrageous ransom demands! Please use discretion when downloading articles from the biased media who largely revel in the Hamas antics.
Hamas cannot be trusted when they claim the bodies they’re handing over were already not alive before the deal. The only way Israel should get the bodies back is by sending in soldiers to retrieve them.
Hamas says…
This is the problem.
Why are they still in the position to make these decisions?
Where is the UN, Red Cross, Israel, etc?
How pathetic is this – they are torturing klal Yisrael every day with these games…
“Nachum”, they should never, ever have been hostages in Gaza! Are you a Hamas apologist trying to mitigate Hamas’s responsibility for the deaths and suffering of the people they savagely attacked and kidnapped? Anyone who uses asinine rationale like “it could have been an Israeli airstrike” should ask mechila from all those who suffered and are suffering.
Maybe if I had davened just a little bit harder I could have made the difference between life and death for the hostages who have been murdered.
They must pay the price. For all they did to our sisters. For the little neshamos. Shake up Gaza and light it up like sdom vAmora. Zero rachamim!!! Hostages out then FULL FORCE. Show them “hell” let them feel the pain
This horribly, unspeakable tragedy has become fodder for the evil (American as well), media , to feed miscreants with an insatiable appetite for gore, drama and more and more horror stories. Rachmona litzlan. What has happened to humanity, and even the worst liberal loonies (Jews), here and in Israel? Are we so deranged that this sad news has become headlines for news sites, day after day? We should be crying, and klapping chotosi and doing teshuva . Isn’t this punishment for ALL of us, Klal Yisroel – to have to watch, hear and yes, FEEL the pain and heartbreak along with this family, and that of ALL the enduring suffering of ALL the hostages ?
Let Israel go in to Gaza carpet Bomb everything and tell the world to go to hell
If they don’t realize who Chamas is take them as your neighbors and enjoy them
If the mother and kids are murdered, Gaza must be destroyed.