Jerusalem:

Israel said Friday that one of the four bodies returned from Gaza is not hostage Shiri Bibas, as claimed by Hamas, accusing Palestinian “terrorists” of killing her two young boys.

The Israeli military said it had identified the remains of Ariel and Kfir, Shiri’s two sons handed over by the militant group as part of hostage-prisoner swap.

“During the diagnostic process, it was found that the other body handed over does not belong to Shiri Bibas and does not match any other kidnapped individuals,” military spokesman Avichay Adraee said on Telegram.

“We demand Hamas return Shiri Bibas along with all the abductees,” he added.

Adraee said Israel had concluded her two sons had been killed by Palestinian “terrorists” in Gaza, contradicting Hamas’s claim that they were killed in an Israeli air strike early in the war.

“According to the assessment of the relevant authorities and based on available intelligence and diagnostic indicators, Ariel and Kfir Bibas were brutally killed in captivity in November 2023 by Palestinian terrorists,” Adraee said.

On Thursday, Hamas handed over what it claimed were the remains of Shiri, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, who for many Israelis had come to symbolise the hostages’ ordeal since their abduction on October 7, 2023.

Hamas also handed over the body of a fourth hostage, Oded Lifshitz, a veteran journalist and long-time defender of Palestinian rights.

It was the first handover of Israeli bodies under the fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Jerusalem:

Four men held hostage in Gaza since October 7, 2023, and two others held for around 10 years are expected to be freed Saturday under the Israel-Hamas truce, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

Since the entry into force of the January 19 ceasefire, 19 Israeli and dual national hostages have been freed, as have five Thai hostages released outside the accord.

Under the first phase of the accord 33 hostages, of whom eight have been announced as dead, are due to be exchanged by early March in return for the release of around 1,900 Palestinians detained by Israel.

As well as the six due for release on Saturday, the bodies of four dead captives are to be repatriated on Thursday.

The six scheduled to be freed on Saturday are:

– Eliya Cohen, 27 –

Originally from Tzur Hadassah near Jerusalem, Eliya Cohen, now 27, attended the Nova music festival with his fiancee, Ziv Aboud, who survived the October 7 attack.

Cohen worked in marketing and real estate, and was captured with three other young men as they hid in a shelter on the edge of the Gaza Strip.

Aboud said she had heard Cohen shout that he had been hit before he was abducted.

– Omer Shem Tov, 22 –

Omer Shem Tov, a computer programmer who turned 22 in captivity, was also at the Nova music festival along the border when Hamas attacked.

In regular contact with his parents, he “seemed to be more in a panic as the calls went on”, according to a video statement from his father Malki Shem Tov. They lost contact when he was taken to Gaza. A video posted by Hamas on Telegram confirmed he was in Gaza, his parents identifying him thanks to his tattoos.

Shem Tov, who is asthmatic, lived in Herzliya north of Tel Aviv before his capture.

– Tal Shoham, 40 –

The Israeli-Austrian dual national turned 40 in late January. He was kidnapped with his wife and extended family in Beeri kibbutz where they had been visiting relatives.

The software developer and volunteer first-aider is the only member of the family still held — six others were freed during the first truce in November 2023.

Three members of Shoham’s family died in the October 7, 2023 attack.

– Omer Wenkert, 23 –

The eldest of four children, Omer Wenkert, an Israeli-Argentinian who turned 23 in captivity, attended the Nova festival with his friend Kim Damati, who was killed in the attack.

Wenkert had worked as a restaurant manager and friends described him as “joyful with a contagious energy”, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

He suffers from a chronic illness, and the last proof he was alive was given by a hostage freed in the November 2023 truce.

Wenkert’s last message to his mother before being kidnapped was: “I am scared to death”.

– Hisham al-Sayed, 37 –

Hisham al-Sayed, a Bedouin of Israeli nationality with psycho-social disabilities, is believed to have been held in Gaza since he entered the territory of his own accord in 2015.

A hostage for nearly 10 years, he turned 37 on February 15.

He had been missing for a year when in April 2016 his photo appeared on Hamas television. Human Rights Watch then reported that he had been spotted by surveillance systems crossing into Gaza in April 2015.

Previously he lived with his family in the Negev desert in southern Israel.

His parents say he has schizophrenia and needs daily medication. Relatives said he also went missing in Jordan and Egypt several times before being handed over to the Israeli authorities. They also said he entered the Gaza Strip in 2010 and 2013 and was expelled by Hamas because of his mental state.

In June 2022, Hamas published a video on Telegram showing Sayed on a bed under an artificial respirator.

– Avraham Mengistu, 38 –

Avraham Mengistu, known by the nickname Avera, is an Israeli Jew of Ethiopian origin said by the authorities to suffer from mental disorders. He has been a hostage in Gaza for more than 10 years.

He was filmed by an Israeli security camera on September 7, 2014, sneaking into Gaza by climbing the barrier, shortly after a previous Israeli offensive.

His abduction, which initially went unnoticed, was announced by Israel in July 2015.

Born in Ethiopia, he arrived in Israel aged five in May 1991 with more than 14,000 people who were transferred from Ethiopia to Israel in 36 hours.

His family moved to Ashkelon, southern Israel, where he lived before his abduction.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Jerusalem:

Through tears and tight embraces, freed Israeli-American hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen on Saturday finally learnt the name of his youngest daughter, born two months after he was abducted by Hamas in October 2023. In footage published by the Israeli government, Dekel-Chen’s wife Avital, shedding tears of joy as the two embraced after 16 months apart, told him that the baby girl was named Shahar Mazal, which could translate into “lucky dawn” in English.

“That’s perfect,” the 36-year-old responded, moments after he was brought back to Israel.

The couple reunited at a military base in the south, where Sagui Dekel-Chen was brought along with two other hostages — Israeli-Russian Sasha Trupanov, 29, and Israeli-Argentine Yair Horn, 46 — all freed on Saturday in the sixth hostage-prisoner exchange of the Gaza ceasefire.

The three men had been seized from their homes in Nir Oz, a kibbutz community near the Gaza border, during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war.

A statement from Dekel-Chen’s family, shared by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group, said: “Our Sagui is home. A friend, son, partner, and most importantly a father, has returned.”

After nearly 500 days in captivity, “now he’s finally on Israeli soil, with us,” it added.

“In the coming hours, he will begin his rehabilitation process, he will meet his daughters Gali and Bar, and for the first time meet his little daughter, Shahar, who was born while he was in captivity.”

The statement said the family plans to keep campaigning “until the last hostage returns home”.

In return, Israel released 369 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday, most of them residents of the Gaza Strip detained during the war but some of them serving life sentences for attacks against Israelis.

Israeli-Russian Sasha Trupanov, 29, was greeted by his girlfriend and mother who threw themselves into his arms at the reception point. Later, he was expected to be reunited with his grandmother.

All three women had been abducted with him but were released in during a first, week-long truce in November 2023. 

According to Israeli media, it was only after his release that Trupanov learnt of his father’s death in the October 2023 attack.

Yair Horn was first reunited with his brother Amos and his mother before going to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv to see his father, who is diabetic like him and had just had a kidney transplant.

On the way, the helicopter transporting them flew over the stadium of Horn’s beloved Hapoel Beersheva Football Club in southern Israel.

He was wearing the club’s red jersey when he arrived at the hospital, an AFP photographer reported. His brother Eitan Horn remains in captivity in Gaza.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages, kidnapped during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, hold pictures of hostages and banners as they protest demanding the release of all hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel January 27, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Israel will continue to follow the Gaza peace deal until all the hostages return, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi Fares Saeb said.

“We will follow the deal signed until we see all our hostages back; the living ones to continue their lives with their families and the deceased ones to receive a proper burial and funeral back at their homes,” he told PTI in New Delhi on Monday (January 27, 2025) on the sidelines of an event.

The Israeli diplomat hoped for the smooth conclusion of the first phase of the negotiations.

“After the first phase, Hamas tried to break the deal by not releasing the last female civilian hostage. We viewed this as a breach but chose not to break the entire deal because we want our hostages back. We proceeded with the second step and halted the movement of Gazans to the north until Hamas adheres to the agreement.

“We hope to see the release of two female hostages, one civilian and one soldier, along with five male civilians in the next few days,” the Israeli diplomat emphasised.

Early on Monday (Jan. 27), Qatar stated that Hamas would release the civilian hostage, Arbel Yehoud, along with two others before Friday (Jan. 31). In response, Israeli officials agreed to allow Palestinians to return to northern Gaza starting Monday.

Around 90 hostages are still believed to be in captivity.

Speaking on the sidelines of an event related to Holocaust Remembrance Day, Union Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh expressed happiness over the progress made in the Middle East.

“I am very happy to note that the progress that is being made to resolve the conflict is very much underway. The release of the hostages and the peace talks will hopefully pave the way for a lasting solution to this conflict,” he said.

On October 7, 2023, the terrorist attack by Hamas against Israel killed approximately 1,200 Israelis, with around 200 becoming hostages.

“We cannot be mute spectators when such acts of terrorism occur. Silence and inaction have historically allowed hate and violence to flourish,” the Minister emphasised.

The Minister expressed that India views with concern the increasing instances of racial and religious intolerance and xenophobia, which continue to challenge global values such as peace, justice, the rule of law, and territorial integrity.

Hamas on Saturday released four Israeli hostages in the 2nd phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal in exchange for 200 Palestinian prisoners. As celebrations broke out in Tel Aviv, a video shows the four women – Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, and Naama Levy, all aged 20, and Liri Albag (19) – being brought to Gaza by armed men in camouflaged military gear, with green Hamas headbands.

They were paraded on a stage in Gaza City where the women can be seen waving, smiling, and showing a thumbs up to the crowd.

They are home!
Hamas liberated the four hostages!
But not before they dragged them to a cynical show on a stage!

This stupid propaganda is useless!

Welcome home Naama, Liri, Daniela and Karina! pic.twitter.com/FYtEtnWnOW

— Hamas Atrocities (@HamasAtrocities) January 25, 2025

Another video doing rounds on social media shows the four released hostages thanking Hamas for their “hospitality” for the past 477 days. 

The video is a compilation of the women saying one sentence each to thank the Lebanon-backed group while they were on their way home.

“Hello, peace be upon you. Thank you to the Al-Qassam Brigades for all the good treatment,” said one women. Another said, “Thank you for all the food, drink, and clothes”.

The third said, “Thank you to the young men who were taking care of us and protecting us from the bombing”.

The fourth released hostage said, “It will be a happy day, the best day, and we will all be well”.

In the end, all the four women can be seen smiling together and saying, “Today is January 25, 2025”.

Released ‘Israeli’ captives thanking Al-Qassam Brigades for their hospitality… in Arabic. pic.twitter.com/4QDBQx0wKk

— Ihcen (@ihcentoo) January 25, 2025

The four Israeli women were held captive by Hamas during its attack on October 7, 2023, which killed at least 1200 people. IDF also shared multiple videos and pictures of the women reuniting with their families.

Ending more than 15 months of war that killed over 47,000 people, Israel began a six-week ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza on January 19. In the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal, the Hamas release three women in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners. Through the six-week ceasefire, 33 hostages are being freed in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

As the Gaza war nears its first anniversary, an Israeli man taken hostage by Hamas on Friday recalled his confinement, saying he heard beatings while in captivity.

Shlomi Ziv, 41, was among the four Israeli hostages who were rescued alive from Hamas captivity in June.

They were kidnapped from the Nova music festival, a trance festival held in Israel’s Negev Desert, on October 7 last year.

Noa Argamani (25), Almog Meir Jan (21), Andrey Kozlov (27), and Shlomi Ziv (40) were rescued in a special operation by the IDF, ISA and Israel Police from 2 separate locations in the heart of Nuseirat after being kidnapped by Hamas from the Nova music festival.

They are in good… pic.twitter.com/PnkjL4GRQz

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 8, 2024

“There were quiet nights in captivity when you could hear every little sound, and then suddenly, you’d hear someone getting beaten,” Ziv was quoted as saying by the Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post.

“It was chilling to hear the screams of that person being brutally beaten,” he added.

“One thing that my captivity in Gaza reinforced more than anything else is the understanding and realization that they don’t want any peace with us or to live next to us or with us,” Ziv said.

He also said the Hamas members called them “cockroaches” and always said that the next time they do something like the October 7 attack, “they won’t take hostages, but would kill them”.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, Ziv was working as security director at the Nova music festival when he was taken hostage.

Hamas members staged their worst-ever attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and took 251 hostages from the Nova music festival and Nir Oz kibbutz, triggering the war in Gaza.

64 Hostages Still Held By Hamas In Gaza

According to reports, while 117 of the 251 hostages have so far been freed, most of them women, children, and foreign workers, 64 people are still in Hamas’ captivity.

This is the moment the elite Yamam unit rescued former hostages Shlomi Ziv, Almog Meir Jan and Andrey Kozlov from captivity in Gaza.

Real life superheroes. pic.twitter.com/1fMGPu3xpz

— Israel ישראל (@Israel) June 10, 2024

Of the 64 thought to be alive, 57 are Israelis, six are Thai nationals and one is Nepalese, according to news agency AFP.

Fifty-two men, 10 women, two children, and eleven military personnel are said to be held in Gaza.

Most of the hostages were released during a week-long truce in late November in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

The Israeli army has confirmed 70 others are dead, 33 of whose bodies are still in Gaza.

Demonstrators during an anti-government protest calling for action to secure the release of Israeli hostages held captive since the October 7 attacks by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in front of the Israeli Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv on September 10, 2024
| Photo Credit: AFP

The Israeli military has released video footage of a Gaza tunnel where it says six hostages were recently killed by Hamas. The video shows a low, narrow passageway deep underground that had no bathroom and poor ventilation.

The discovery of the hostages’ bodies last month sparked a mass outpouring of anger in Israel and the release of the new video could add to the pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a cease-fire deal with Hamas to bring the remaining hostages home.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Tuesday (September 10, 2024), the footage of the Gaza tunnel had been shown to the hostages’ families, and that it “was very hard for them to see how their loved ones survived in those conditions.”

He said evidence indicated the six had been protecting each other when they were killed, although he didn’t elaborate on what that evidence was.

The six included Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, a native of Berkeley, California, whose parents led a high-profile global campaign seeking his release. Goldberg-Polin lost part of his left arm to a grenade in the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war in Gaza. In April, Hamas issued a video that showed him alive, sparking protests in Israel. The army identified the others as Ori Danino, 25; Eden Yerushalmi, 24; Almog Sarusi, 27; Alexander Lobanov, 33; and Carmel Gat, 40.

Three of the six – including Goldberg-Polin – had reportedly been scheduled to be released in the first phase of a cease-fire proposal discussed in July, further fueling anger when they were found dead.

Tunnel beneath a children’s room

Pathology tests on the bodies of the six, who were found by the military in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Saturday, Aug. 31, showed they had been killed sometime on the night of Aug. 29, Hagari said. The military found a tunnel shaft beneath a children’s room and advanced through it carefully because of the danger of booby traps, finding the bodies about 120 meters into the tunnel, in an area behind an iron door.

The tunnel was low and narrow, with humid conditions making it hard to breathe inside, Hagari said, adding that Israeli soldiers found evidence indicating the hostages and “at least two terrorists” had been there for more than a few days. The soldiers found a sack containing bottles of urine and a bucket dug into the ground to serve as an improvised toilet, he said. Mattresses, clothes, assault rifle magazines and shells were also found, as was some food, mainly energy bars and tuna. There were blood stains on the floor, he said.

Hagari said the army had killed two militants trying to run away from a complex of tunnels on Friday near where the hostages were found and that there was “a probability” that the two had been those who killed the hostages. DNA tests were being carried out to verify this, he added.

Hamas kidnapped about 250 people during the Oct. 7 attack. More than 100 were released during a brief cease-fire in November in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Eight have been rescued by Israeli forces, while Israeli troops mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages who had escaped captivity in December. Israeli authorities say 101 hostages remain in captivity, including 35 who are believed to be dead.

Hamas has offered to release the hostages in return for an end to the war, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including high-profile militants. But negotiations on a cease-fire have failed to produce any deal.

Palestinian Territories:

Hamas’s armed wing said on Monday that hostages would return to Israel “inside coffins” if military pressure continued, warning that “new instructions” had been given to the militants guarding the captives if Israeli troops approached.

“(Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s insistence on liberating the prisoners through military pressure instead of concluding a deal will mean that they will return to their families inside coffins,” Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement.

“New instructions were issued to the mujahideen assigned to guard the prisoners regarding dealing with them if the occupation army approached their place of detention,” he said, after Netanyahu earlier said the six hostages whose bodies were recovered at the weekend had been “executed”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Members of Kibbutz Nir Oz and Israeli officials hold a conference calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government to secure a deal to return the hostages kidnapped during the deadly October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, in Kibbutz Nir Oz, southern Israel, on August 18, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Israel’s Prime Minister on Sunday (August 18, 2024) accused Hamas of being an obstacle in negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire deal and called for more pressure on the Palestinian militants ahead of a new round of talks later this week.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments came with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken set to arrive in Israel later on Sunday (August 18, 2024) to push for a deal that could help avert a wider conflagration.

“Hamas, up to this moment, remains obstinate. It did not even send a representative to the talks in Doha. Therefore, the pressure should be directed at Hamas and (Yahya) Sinwar, not at the Israeli government,” Mr. Netanyahu said at a Cabinet meeting, referring to the newly appointed Hamas chief.

Western ally Jordan, hostage supporters protesting in Israel, and Hamas itself have called for pressure on Mr. Netanyahu in order that an agreement be reached.

On Thursday (August 15, 2024), Hamas official Osama Hamdan told AFP the movement informed mediators it would participate in the Doha talks, which took place Thursday (August 15, 2024) and Friday (August 16, 2024), if they were “to set a timetable for the implementation” of what Hamas had already agreed to.

Hamas also announced its opposition to what it called “new conditions” from Israel.

Mr. Netanyahu, however, told Cabinet that, “We are conducting negotiations and not a scenario in which we just give and give. There are things we can be flexible on and there are things that we cannot be flexible on, which we will insist on.”

He said “enormous efforts” are being made to bring home the hostages.

“We firmly stand by the principles we have set, which are essential for Israel’s security,” Mr. Netanyahu said, calling for “strong military pressure and strong diplomatic pressure” on Hamas to reach a deal.

Making his ninth trip to the Middle East since the Gaza war began with Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, Mr. Blinken is due to meet Mr. Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders on Monday (August 19, 2024) before truce talks resume in Cairo later in the week.

Moscow’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov hopes to meet representatives of the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Qatar next week for talks to free Israeli hostages, Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency reported on October 14.

Moscow has so far carefully denounced violence from both sides in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, while renewing an offer to be a potential mediator.

Follow live updates from the Israel-Hamas war on October 14

Mr. Bogdanov told RIA Novosti he “did not exclude” meeting Hamas representatives on the trip, adding: “If they are willing, we always are in favour of contact. Especially in this situation (the meeting) would be useful for solving practical issues, including the freeing of hostages.”

On October 7, hundreds of Hamas gunmen broke through the militarised border around the Gaza Strip into Israel, killing more than 1,200 people and taking around 150 Israeli, foreign and dual-national hostages.

Moscow manages to retain close relations with both the Israeli and Palestinian authorities.

Also Read | Saudi pauses talks on normalisation with Israel: Report

The announcement of Mr. Bogdanov’s efforts came a day after President Vladimir Putin said Russia could help find a way to end the crisis.

“Russia can (help), by virtue of the fact that we have had good relations with Israel over the last 15 years,” Mr. Putin said on a visit to Kyrgyzstan on October 13.

Also Read: At U.N., Palestinians call for halt to Israeli offensive, world powers mull options

He also said Israel risked waging an “unacceptable” siege in Gaza.

The Russian leader has said that the creation of a Palestinian state is the only viable way to solve the conflict.

Moscow — whose troops have fought in Ukraine for almost 20 months — has blamed the West for the conflict in Israel.