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Aunt of Kfir and Ariel Bibas Says Family Not Seeking Revenge on Hamas, Just Wants Missing Hostage Shiri Back
Ariel and Kfir Bibas. Photo: Hostages and Missing Families Forum
Ofri Bibas Levy, the aunt of Ariel and Kfir Bibas, said on Friday that her family is not looking to avenge the death of her two young nephews, who were kidnapped and then “murdered in cold blood” by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, but instead want to focus solely now on securing the return of their mother, Shiri Bibas.
“Yesterday we received the devastating news of Ariel and Kfir’s murder in captivity,” Levy — who is the sister of Ariel and Kfir’s father, Yarden Bibas — said in a statement shared by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. “We waited for certainty, but it brings no comfort — only profound grief.”
“My sweet nephews were taken alive from their home and murdered by a cruel terrorist organization while in captivity,” the statement continued. “They didn’t deserve such a fate. Our painful journey, which has already lasted 16 months, is not over. Oct. 7 continues. We are still waiting for Shiri and fear for her fate.”
Levy also expressed anger with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not doing more to secure the safe turn of her sister-in-law, 32, and two nephews after they were abducted from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, and held captive in the Gaza Strip. Ariel was 4 years old and Kfir was 10 months old at their time of death in November 2023, according to the Israel Defense Forces. They were held hostage in Gaza for 503 days.
Yarden was also kidnapped but released by Hamas on Feb. 1 as part of a ceasefire agreement between the terrorist group and Israel to halt fighting in Gaza. Hamas claimed they returned Shiri’s dead body on Thursday, along with those of her children and fellow hostage Oded Lifshitz, 84. But upon the body’s return to Israel, forensic examination showed that it did not belong to the mother of two. The Israel Defense Forces said the received body “is not that of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other hostage. This is an anonymous, unidentified body.”
“Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir were taken alive by a murderous terrorist organization, and it was Israel’s responsibility and obligation to bring them back alive,” Levy said in her statement. “There is no forgiveness for abandoning them on Oct. 7, and no forgiveness for abandoning them in captivity. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, we did not receive an apology from you in this painful moment. For Ariel and Kfir’s sake, and for Yarden’s sake, we are not seeking revenge right now. We are asking for Shiri.”
She added that Hamas’s “cruelty only emphasizes the urgent need to bring Shiri back to us, save the lives of the living hostages, and return all the fallen for burial,” before addressing US President Donald Trump and asking him to take action to help Shiri return home.
“President Trump, I am asking you, please help Israel and our family complete this important mission,” she said. “We thank everyone for their support and ask that the family’s privacy be respected. Luli and Firfir, I’m sorry I cannot yet cry for you. We are waiting for Mommy Shiri.”
Kfir and Ariel are duel Israeli-Argentine citizens, by way of their father. Argentina has declared two days of national mourning for the Bibas brothers.
IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said on Friday morning that based on forensics finding from the identification process, examination of Kfir and Ariel’s bodies showed Hamas terrorists killed the young brothers “with their bare hands.”
“Ariel and Kfir Bibas were murdered by terrorists in cold blood,” Hagari said. “The terrorists did not shoot the two young boys — they killed them with their bare hands. Afterwards, they committed horrific acts to cover up these atrocities.” The IDF added that Ariel, Kfir, and Lifshitz were all murdered in November 2023.
Kfir was abducted when he was 9 months old, making him the youngest hostage kidnapped by terrorists from Israel during the Oct. 7 massacre and the youngest to have been killed. He and Ariel’s grandparents, Margit and Yosi, were also murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, as well as the Bibas family dog.
Thursday’s handover of bodies will be followed by the return of six living hostages on Saturday, in exchange for hundreds more Palestinian prisoners, as part of the ongoing Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal. The ceasefire went into effect on Jan. 19.
The post Aunt of Kfir and Ariel Bibas Says Family Not Seeking Revenge on Hamas, Just Wants Missing Hostage Shiri Back first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to task experts to start drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after a second round of talks following President Donald Trump’s threat of military action.
At their second indirect meeting in a week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for almost four hours in Rome with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, through an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.
Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, says it is willing to discuss limited curbs to its atomic work in return for lifting international sanctions.
Speaking on state TV after the talks, Araqchi described them as useful and conducted in a constructive atmosphere.
“We were able to make some progress on a number of principles and goals, and ultimately reached a better understanding,” he said.
“It was agreed that negotiations will continue and move into the next phase, in which expert-level meetings will begin on Wednesday in Oman. The experts will have the opportunity to start designing a framework for an agreement.”
The top negotiators would meet again in Oman next Saturday to “review the experts’ work and assess how closely it aligns with the principles of a potential agreement,” he added.
Echoing cautious comments last week from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he added: “We cannot say for certain that we are optimistic. We are acting very cautiously. There is no reason either to be overly pessimistic.”
There was no immediate comment from the US side following the talks. Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Washington’s ally Israel, which opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned in 2018, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program.
A senior Iranian official, who described Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity on Friday, listed its red lines as never agreeing to dismantle its uranium enriching centrifuges, halt enrichment altogether or reduce its enriched uranium stockpile below levels agreed in the 2015 deal.
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Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike
Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Edan Alexander, 19, an Israeli army volunteer kidnapped by Hamas, attends a special Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony with families of other hostages, in Herzliya, Israel October 27, 2023 REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
Hamas said on Saturday the fate of an Israeli dual national soldier believed to be the last US citizen held alive in Gaza was unknown, after the body of one of the guards who had been holding him was found killed by an Israeli strike.
A month after Israel abandoned the ceasefire with the resumption of intensive strikes across the breadth of Gaza, Israel was intensifying its attacks.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native who was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war, was a “top priority.” His release was at the center of talks held between Hamas leaders and US negotiator Adam Boehler last month.
Hamas had said on Tuesday that it had lost contact with the militants holding Alexander after their location was hit in an Israeli attack. On Saturday it said the body of one of the guards had been recovered.
“The fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” said Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Ubaida.
“We are trying to protect all the hostages and preserve their lives … but their lives are in danger because of the criminal bombings by the enemy’s army,” Abu Ubaida said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Hamas released 38 hostages under the ceasefire that began on January 19. Fifty-nine are still believed to be held in Gaza, fewer than half of them still alive.
Israel put Gaza under a total blockade in March and restarted its assault on March 18 after talks failed to extend the ceasefire. Hamas says it will free remaining hostages only under an agreement that permanently ends the war; Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it hit about 40 targets across the enclave over the past day. The military on Saturday announced that a 35-year-old soldier had died in combat in Gaza.
NETANYAHU STATEMENT
Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.
He dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”
Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give a statement later on Saturday.
Hamas on Saturday also released an undated and edited video of Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot. Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda.
After the video was released, Bohbot’s family said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and devastated,” and expressed concern for his mental and physical condition.
“How much longer will he be expected to wait and ‘stay strong’?” the family asked, urging for all of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza to be brought home.
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Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks
FILE PHOTO: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said gives a speech after being sworn in before the royal family council in Muscat, Oman January 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani/File Photo
Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran.
The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Iran and the US started a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran’s atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Ahead of Saturday’s talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Following the meeting, Lavrov said Russia was “ready to assist, mediate and play any role that will be beneficial to Iran and the USA.”
Moscow has played a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The sultan’s meetings in Moscow visit will focus on cooperation on regional and global issues, the Omani state news agency and the Kremlin said, without providing further detail.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss trade and economic ties, the Kremlin added.
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