Lucy Manning Special correspondent Reuters Hamas returned the bodies of deceased child hostages Kfir and Ariel Bibas to Israel this week Kfir and Ariel Bibas were last seen on 7 October with their mother Shiri’s hands around them, holding onto her boys surrounded by gunmen and violence, trying to protect them. She couldn’t. According to…
On a bleak late winter’s day, under leaden skies and occasional driving rain, this was the moment all Israelis had been dreading. The return of the dead. It began, as all the handovers so far have begun, with a politically charged display by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups involved in holding Israeli hostages for…
Israel is seeking another extension of the deadline for the withdrawal of its troops from southern Lebanon, a Western diplomatic source says, a request that is likely to raise new concerns in a country with a history of Israeli occupation. Israeli forces had been due to pull out next week but the source told the…
Israel’s prime minister has warned Hamas it will end the ceasefire in Gaza and resume intense fighting if the Palestinian group “does not return our hostages by Saturday noon”. Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered Israeli forces to amass inside and around Gaza in response to Hamas’s announcement that it was postponing freeing more hostages…
ISRAEL KATZ Shlomo Mansour’s body is being held captive by Hamas in Gaza The Israeli military has said an elderly Israeli man was killed during Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel and that his body is being held hostage in Gaza. Iraq-born Shlomo Mansour, 86, was abducted by gunmen at his home in…
Why has Hamas announced a delay just days before it is due to release the next group of hostages? In one of its official statements, released on Telegram, the group called its announcement a “warning” to Israel and said it was giving mediators “ample time to pressure the occupation [Israel] into fulfilling its obligations”. It…
A spokesperson for the armed wing of Hamas says the group is postponing the next scheduled release of Israeli hostages, blaming what he said were Israeli violations of the ceasefire deal. Three hostages held in Gaza are due to be freed on Saturday in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. Abu Obeida said…
Reuters Reports suggest Gazans are finding scenes of total destruction as they head home Israeli troops have withdrawn from the Netzarim Corridor – a military zone cutting off the north of the Gaza Strip from the south. Hundreds of Palestinians in cars and on carts laden with mattresses and other goods began returning to northern…
An Israeli military court has sentenced a soldier to seven months in prison after he admitted to the aggravated abuse of Palestinian detainees from Gaza at the Sde Teiman military detention centre. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the reservist, who it did not name, was convicted over “several incidents in which he punched the…
Israel says eight of the remaining 26 hostages due to be released by Hamas during the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal are dead. Government spokesman David Mencer told reporters that Israel had received a list from the Palestinian armed group overnight that provided information on the status of the hostages. “The list from…
