JERUSALEM: Hamas was set to launch six extra hostages from Gaza on Saturday (Feb 22) in change for a whole lot of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, after Israel confirmed {that a} physique handed over hours earlier was that of hostage Shiri Bibas.
The delicate truce within the struggle between Israel and Hamas militants had been threatened with derailment by the misidentification of a physique launched on Thursday as that of Bibas, who was kidnapped together with her two younger sons and her husband within the Hamas assault on Oct 7, 2023.
Nevertheless late on Friday, Hamas handed over one other physique, which her household mentioned had been confirmed to be hers.
“Final evening, our Shiri was returned residence,” her household mentioned in a press release, which mentioned she had been recognized by Israel’s Institute of Forensic Drugs.
In Gaza, armed and masked Hamas militants gathered at two areas, in Rafah and Nuseirat, the place six dwelling hostages had been anticipated to be handed over to the Purple Cross, which arrived on the first website and can transport them to Israeli forces.
They’re the final dwelling hostages from a gaggle of 33 resulting from be freed within the first stage of the ceasefire deal that took impact on Jan 19.
4 of the hostages, Eliya Cohen, 27, Tal Shoham, 40, Omer Shem Tov, 22, and Omer Wenkert, 23, had been seized by Hamas gunmen throughout their assault on Israel on Oct 7, 2023.
Two others, Hisham Al-Sayed, 36, and Avera Mengistu, 39, have been held by Hamas since they entered Gaza individually underneath unexplained circumstances round a decade in the past.
In return, Israel is predicted to launch 602 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in its jails within the newest stage of an change that has largely held.
The Bibas household has been an emblem of the trauma suffered by Israel on that day. The misidentification of the stays of Shiri Bibas, in addition to the staged handover of their coffins by Hamas outraged Israelis. Her husband Yarden, seized and held individually from his household, was freed on Feb 1.
The Israeli army mentioned intelligence assessments and forensic evaluation of the our bodies of 10-month-old Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother Ariel confirmed each had been killed intentionally by their captors.
