Location at a glance: “Day of grief”: Hamas wants to hand over corpses of hostages

For the first time since the beginning of the Gaza War almost a year and a half ago, the Islamist Hamas wants to hand over the corpses of people who had been deported from Israel on Thursday. According to Hamas and Israeli media reports, a mother and two toddlers should be among the four dead, all of whom also have German citizenship. The fourth hostage body is according to the information that of an older man.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the evening before the handover that the list of dead was available and the families had been informed. The remains are to be handed over to the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip and then Israel. In a forensic institute near Tel Aviv, their identity is to be determined, after which the relatives are informed about the result.

Is there now clarity about the lot of the Bibas family?

The fate of Schiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas is still not clear. Video recordings of the frightening mother and her two red-haired sons, which were created during the kidnapping after the massacre of the Hamas terrorists in the Israeli border area on October 7, 2023, went around the world.

Hamas had announced in November 2023 that the three were killed in the Gaza Strip in Israeli bombing. So far, there has been no final confirmation for her alleged death. However, the army expressed great concern about the fate of the mother and her two sons several times.

The father of the children, Jarden Bibas, was recently released by Hamas. “Unfortunately, my family has not returned to me,” he said after his return to Israel. “My light is still there (in the Gaza Strip), and as long as they are there, everything is dark here.”

Netanyahu speaks of “difficult day” for Israel

Prime Minister Netanyahu said Israel was facing a “difficult day”. “A shocking day, a day of grief.” It tears the heart of the whole nation, but “it should tear the heart of the whole world because here you can see who we are dealing with with which monsters”.

It could take a while before there is a final certainty about the identity of the bodied corpses. Israeli media reported to Health Minister Uriel Busso that the identification process could take some time. The cause of death should also be checked.

The exact expiry of the handover that is expected in Chan Junis in the morning was initially unclear. HAMAS had always staged previous hosts of hostages as a demonstration of power and spectacle for onlookers.

Red cross calls for a worthy handover

Israeli media reported that a Hamas vehicle would probably bring the corpses to representatives of the International Committee from the Red Cross (IKRK). These would then hand over the corpses in the Gaza Strip of the Israeli army, in the presence of a rabbi. The remains should then be placed in coffins, which would then be wrapped with blue and white Israeli flags.

The Red Cross called on to design the handover “in a private and worthy way”. Any humiliating treatment is unacceptable.

In return for the four corpses, Israel reports on all women and minors who have been arrested since the beginning of the Gaza War in October 2023 and are not said to have been involved in the armed fight against Israel.

Handing over six other hostages on Saturday

Six other Israeli hostages are to be released on Saturday, and four more corpses will be handed over next week. Since the beginning of the ceasefire in the Gaza War on January 19, the Islamists released 19 hostages in several rounds. In addition, five Thai people kidnapped from Israel were released regardless of the agreement.

The multi -stage agreement between Israel and Hamas stipulates that during a first six -week phase, a total of 33 hostages are released in an exchange for 1,904 Palestinian prisoners. According to Hamas, eight of these hostages are no longer alive.

Hamas man abused? Reservists charged in Israel

According to army information, Israel’s military prosecutor has raised charges against five reservists who are said to have been involved in the severe abuse of a Palestinian prisoner. They are accused of having added heavy, sexual violence to the prisoner. According to Israeli media, the reservists abused a Hamas member so brutally that the man had to be taken to the hospital injured. It should therefore come from the Gaza Strip.

On July 5, 2024, the accused received the instruction to search the prisoner on arrival in the military base SDE Teiman near the desert city of Beerscheva, said Israel’s military. For this, the prisoner was connected and his hands and ankles were tied up. The evidence collected in half -year investigations are “extensive and comprised medical documents and authentic film material from the installed surveillance cameras,” said the army.

In this case, Israeli military police officers initially arrested ten soldiers, but five of them were later released. Reports of bad conditions for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody are not uncommon and keep making headlines.