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Netanyahu Says Thursday to Be ‘Wrenching Day’ for Israel as Hamas, Islamic Jihad Set to Hand Over Hostage Bodies
Yzhar Lifshitz, a resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz, holds a poster of his father, Oded Lifshitz, 84, who had been held hostage in Gaza since the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, during an interview with Reuters in Karmei Yosef, Israel, Dec. 17, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Joyce Zhou
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Thursday would be a “difficult” and “wrenching” day for Israel as it receives the bodies of four hostages set to be handed over by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas as part of the ongoing Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal.
“Tomorrow will be a very difficult day for the State of Israel. A wrenching day, a day of grief. We are bringing home four of our beloved hostages, deceased,” Netanyahu said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Israeli premier’s comments came one day after his office confirmed that “four slain hostages” would be released on Thursday, followed by “six living hostages” on Saturday as part of the Jewish state’s ceasefire with Hamas that has halted the war in Gaza.
“We embrace the families, and the heart of the entire nation is torn. My own heart is torn. So is yours. And all of the world’s heart should be torn, because this demonstrates who we are dealing with, what we are dealing with — with such monsters,” Netanyahu’s statement on Wednesday continued. “We are grieving, we are in pain, but we are also determined to ensure that such a thing never happens again.”
The armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an Iran-backed terrorist group in Gaza allied with Hamas, said on Wednesday that it would release the body of Israeli hostage Oded Lifshitz, who was 84 years old, on Thursday. The group said Lifshitz was one of the hostages killed during Israeli strikes on Gaza.
Hamas is set to release the bodies of three other hostages on Thursday, members of the Bibas family. A spokesperson for the terrorist group announced on Tuesday that it would transfer the bodies of the four Israelis, including the two youngest hostages, Kfir and Ariel Bibas.
Also on Tuesday, the families of Omer Wenkert, Omer Shem Tov, Eliya Cohen, Tal Shoham, Avera Mengistu, and Hisham al-Sayed announced they had been informed by Israeli authorities that their loved ones were slated for release on Saturday.
Al-Sayed and Mengistu had been held in Gaza for over a decade after entering the enclave of their own accord. All the others were abducted on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists invaded southern Israel, murdered 1,200 people, and kidnapped 251 hostages into Gaza.
An additional four hostages would be released next week, according to Netanyahu’s office.
The fate of Kfir and Ariel Bibas — who were nine months and four years old, respectively, at the time of their abduction — and their mother, Shiri, has remained uncertain since the Oct. 7 massacre, during which they were snatched from their home in kibbutz Nir Oz. Shiri’s husband, Yarden Bibas, was released earlier this month as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.
In a statement, the Bibas family said it had not received confirmation from Israeli authorities on Hamas’s declaration of their deaths.
“In the past few hours, we have been in turmoil following a Hamas spokesperson’s announcement about the planned return of our Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir this Thursday as part of the hostages’ remains release phase,” the family said in the statement, which was released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. “We want to make it clear that while we are aware of these reports, we have not yet received any official confirmation regarding this matter. Until we receive definitive confirmation, our journey is not over. We ask the media and the public to respect our privacy and refrain from contacting us about this matter.”
The Israeli health care system and the National Center of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv are preparing to receive the deceased hostages and conduct examinations to confirm identification and attempt to determine the cause and time of death.
Before then, the Red Cross will take custody of the bodies from Hamas at a designated transfer point and hand them over to the Israeli military.
Hamas has so far only released living hostages, and mental health organizations are reportedly making preparations for the devastating emotional impact that the first hand-over of hostage bodies will have not only on the families but also Israeli society more broadly.
The first phase of the ceasefire, which went into effect on Jan. 19 and is set to last 42 days, calls on Hamas to gradually release 33 Israeli hostages, eight of whom are believed to be dead, in exchange for about 1,900 Palestinian prisoners, many of whom have been serving lengthy sentences for terrorist activity.
About 70 captives remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 35 confirmed dead by the Israeli military.
Negotiations for the next phase of the ceasefire deal are set to begin this week. That phase is supposed to include the release of all the remaining living hostages and a full Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza, although differing views over Gaza’s future, including the role of Hamas in the Palestinian enclave, still need to be addressed.
The post Netanyahu Says Thursday to Be ‘Wrenching Day’ for Israel as Hamas, Islamic Jihad Set to Hand Over Hostage Bodies first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israeli Supreme Court Demands Government Explain Insufficient Ultra-Orthodox Recruits
The Israeli Supreme Court in Jerusalem. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
i24 News – The Israeli Supreme Court issued a conditional order on Sunday requiring the government to explain why it is not issuing conscription orders for ultra-Orthodox Jews on a scale that meets the needs of the army.
The decision comes after three appeals filed by the Movement for Quality Government, the Protective Wall Forum for Democracy, Israel Hofsheet, and other organizations. Justices Noam Sohlberg, David Mintz, and Daphne Barak-Erez have given the government until June 24 to provide its response.
The court also asked the government to justify the absence of sanctions against those who, although summoned, did not report to the recruitment office. At the same time, discussions are underway to try to pass a law on the conscription of the ultra-Orthodox sector, which would regulate the status of yeshiva students, who study advanced Torah studies. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara insisted on setting a cap limiting the number of students exempt from military service, a requirement that the ultra-Orthodox parties members of the governing coalition refuse to accept.
The issue of enlisting the ultra-Orthodox, long deferred, remains a major source of political and social tension in Israel. While some ultra-Orthodox young people are sometimes arrested for insubordination, legislative initiatives struggle to succeed to stymie the exemption, which has been a de facto policy of Israel for decades. According to the requesting organizations, “equality in military service is a fundamental requirement of a democracy,” a position that the government will now have to confront before the highest jurisdiction in the country.
The post Israeli Supreme Court Demands Government Explain Insufficient Ultra-Orthodox Recruits first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Egypt Demands Hamas Clarify Status of Hostages in Gaza
Families and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas gather to demand a deal that will bring back all the hostages held in Gaza, outside a meeting between hostage representatives and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Jerusalem, Jan. 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
i24 News – Egypt has demanded from Hamas information about the status of the hostages still held in the Gaza Strip, according to the Saudi channel Al-Hadath on Sunday.
“Hamas has informed the mediators that it is necessary to end the escalation to ensure the safety of the hostages,” the report said. Meanwhile, Israel has rejected any temporary ceasefire and demands resolving the issue of Hamas disarming.
Egyptian sources revealed to the London-based Qatari newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadid that Hamas’s proposal offers a release of all living hostages and the bodies of the slain, the announcement of a complete halt of hostilities, and a total withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian enclave.
The plan would come with “clear and precise guarantees” from the US government, Egyptian and Qatari mediators, as well as Turkey. It includes a five-year calm period during which all restrictions concerning the reconstruction of Gaza would be lifted. A significant element of this proposal concerns the “use of resistance weapons.” According to Egyptian sources, Hamas would accept supervision and guarantees ensuring that Gaza’s armed organizations “will not use their weapons and will not rebuild their military infrastructure near the Israeli border, including offensive tunnels,” as long as Israel respects the terms of the agreement.
Israel, however, has rejected any proposal that does not stipulate the complete disarmament of the group.
The proposal also provides for Hamas to completely withdraw from the administration of Gaza, including its police. The management of the territory would be entrusted to an interim committee formed by Egypt, which would also oversee the training of security forces under this body. Regarding humanitarian aid, the discussions have explored several options, including distribution by an American security company or by tribal groups in Gaza not affiliated with Hamas or other armed organizations. A source within the Hamas leadership stressed that the organization’s “red lines” concern “handing over weapons and partial agreements, considered non-serious as they lack real guarantees.”
The post Egypt Demands Hamas Clarify Status of Hostages in Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Missle from Yemen Targets Dead Sea Area
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands in front of an F-35 stealth fighter at the IAF’s Nevatim base, July 9, 2019. Photo: Amos Ben Gershom / GPO.
i24 News – The Israel Defense Forces said that a Houthi missile was intercepted outside of Israeli territory, although sirens blared in the eastern Negev and Dead Sea area. The Yemen-based, Iran-backed terrorist group said that they had targeted the Nevatim airbase.
The post Missle from Yemen Targets Dead Sea Area first appeared on Algemeiner.com.