[🇧🇩] Israel and Hamas war in Gaza-----Can Bangladesh be a peace broker?

[Saif]

New push to salvage Gaza truce

Mediators Qatar and Egypt were pushing to resolve a crisis in the Gaza ceasefire on Wednesday, a Palestinian source said, after Israel and the United States told Hamas to release hostages this weekend or face a return to war...

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New push to salvage Gaza truce
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 13 February, 2025, 00:21

Mediators Qatar and Egypt were pushing to resolve a crisis in the Gaza ceasefire on Wednesday, a Palestinian source said, after Israel and the United States told Hamas to release hostages this weekend or face a return to war.

Under the terms of the truce, which has largely halted more than 15 months of fighting in Gaza, captives were to be released in batches in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli custody. So far, Israel and Hamas have completed five hostage-prisoner swaps.

But the deal has come under increasing strain in recent days, prompting diplomatic efforts to salvage it and Hamas to say it was ‘committed to the ceasefire’ after earlier saying it would postpone Saturday’s scheduled release.

‘Mediators from Qatar and Egypt are in contact with the American side,’ said the source on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorised to speak publicly on the Gaza ceasefire.

‘They are working intensively to resolve the crisis and compel Israel to implement the humanitarian protocol in the ceasefire agreement and begin negotiations for the second phase,’ he said.

UN chief Antonio Guterres has urged Hamas to proceed with the planned release and ‘avoid at all costs resumption of hostilities in Gaza’.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that ‘if Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon, the ceasefire will end, and the IDF (Israeli military) will resume intense fighting until Hamas is decisively defeated’.

His threat echoed that of US president Donald Trump who said on Monday that ‘hell’ would break loose if Hamas failed to release ‘all’ Israeli hostages by Saturday.

Trump has proposed taking over Gaza and removing its more than two million residents.

‘If all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday 12 o’clock I would say cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out,’ Trump said.

He reaffirmed his deadline while hosting Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Tuesday.

King Abdullah said on social media he ‘reiterated Jordan’s steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians’, adding it was ‘the unified Arab position’.

Senior Hamas leader Sami Abu Zuhri said Trump’s remark ‘further complicates matters’.

‘Trump must remember that there is an agreement that must be respected by both parties,’ he said.

Egypt, a US ally which borders Gaza, said Tuesday it plans to ‘present a comprehensive vision for the reconstruction’ of the Palestinian territory which ensures residents remain on their land.

Hamas has said it would postpone the next hostage release, scheduled for Saturday, accusing Israel of violating the deal and calling for it to fulfil its obligations.

Yemen’s Huthi rebels, who are aligned with Hamas and have attacked Israel throughout the war in support of the Palestinians, said they were ‘ready to launch a military intervention at any time in case of escalation against Gaza’.

Netanyahu did not specify whether he was referring to all captives, but his finance minister Bezalel Smotrich called on the premier to ‘open the gates of hell’ if Israel doesn’t get back ‘all the hostages by Saturday’.

The far-right politician demanded the ‘full occupation of the Gaza Strip’ and an end to all humanitarian aid.

The Israeli military said it has reinforced its troops, while hostage families rallied outside Netanyahu’s office in support of the ceasefire.

‘There is a deal. Go for it!’ said Zahiro, whose uncle Avraham Munder died in captivity.

In Gaza, resident Adnan Qassem was praying ‘the ceasefire holds’.

‘The ruling faction in Israel wants war, and I believe there is also a faction within Hamas that wants war,’ said the 60-year-old from Deir el-Balah.

Trump’s latest threat came hours after Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said the hostage release scheduled for Saturday was postponed.

It accused Israel of failing to meet its commitments under the agreement, including on aid, and cited the deaths of three Gazans at the weekend.

But the group said ‘the door remains open’ for the release to go ahead ‘once the occupation complies’.

The Gaza war was triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Militants also took 251 hostages, of whom 73 remain in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the war has killed at least 48,219 people in the territory, figures the UN considers reliable.

A UN report issued on Tuesday said that more than $53 billion will be required to rebuild Gaza and end the ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ in the devastated territory.​

 

[Saif]

Israeli military calls up reservists as concern over Gaza ceasefire mounts

Palestinians walk past the rubble of buildings destroyed during the Israeli offensive, on a rainy day, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City February 6, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas/Files Israel's military has called up reservists in preparation for a possible resumptio

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Israeli military calls up reservists as concern over Gaza ceasefire mounts
REUTERS
Published :
Feb 12, 2025 21:38
Updated :
Feb 12, 2025 21:38

Palestinians walk past the rubble of buildings destroyed during the Israeli offensive, on a rainy day, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City February 6, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas/Files

Israel's military has called up reservists in preparation for a possible resumption of fighting in Gaza if Hamas fails to meet a Saturday deadline to release more Israeli hostages and a nearly month-old ceasefire breaks down.

Concern that the ceasefire will collapse is growing as fury mounts in Arab countries over President Donald Trump's plan for the United States to take over Gaza, resettle its Palestinian inhabitants and build an international beach resort.

Under the ceasefire deal in force since January 19, Hamas agreed to free three more hostages on Saturday. But the Palestinian militant group said this week it was suspending the handover over what it said were Israeli violations of the terms.

Trump responded by saying all hostages must be freed by noon on Saturday or he would "let hell break out".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu then warned on Tuesday that his country would resume "intense fighting" if Hamas did not meet the deadline, but did not say how many hostages should be freed.

Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to gather forces in and around Gaza, and the military announced it was deploying additional forces to Israel's south, including mobilising reservists.

Hamas' Gaza chief, Khalil Al-Hayya, arrived in Cairo on Wednesday for a surprise visit to discuss the fragile ceasefire. A Hamas official told Reuters mediators Egypt and Qatar had stepped up efforts to end the current impasse.

The standoff threatens to reignite a conflict that has devastated the Gaza Strip, internally displaced most of its people, caused shortages of food and running water, and pushed the Middle East to the brink of a wider regional war.

Gazans expressed alarm that the ceasefire might collapse and urged Hamas and Israeli leaders to agree on an extension.

"We had barely started believing that a truce would happen and that a solution was on the way, God willing," said Lotfy Abu Taha, a resident of Rafah in southern Gaza. "The people are suffering. The people are the victims."

Israeli officials said government ministers had endorsed Trump's threat to cancel the ceasefire unless all hostages are released on Saturday.

Hamas said it remained committed to the agreement but has not agreed to release the hostages on Saturday.

Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said in Dubai that Trump's vision for Gaza could lead the Middle East into a new cycle of crises with a "damaging effect on peace and stability."

Trump has said Palestinians in Gaza could settle in countries such as Jordan and Egypt. Both reject the proposal.

Egypt will host an emergency Arab summit on February 27 to discuss "serious" developments for Palestinians.

In a sign of Arab anger over Trump's vision of Gaza, two Egyptian security sources said Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi would not go to Washington for talks if the agenda included Trump's plan to displace Palestinians.

The date for such a visit has not been announced, and the Egyptian presidency and foreign ministry did not comment.

SOME HOSTAGES ALREADY FREED

The Gaza war was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which at least 1,200 people were killed and over 250 were taken as hostages into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

In response, Israel began its military offensive against Hamas which has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians in small, densely populated Gaza, according to Gaza health officials.

Hamas has freed 16 Israeli hostages from an initial group of 33 children, women and older men to be exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in the first stage of the ceasefire deal. It also returned five Thai hostages.

Negotiations on a second phase, which mediators hoped would include agreement on releasing the remaining hostages and a full Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza, should be under way in Doha but an Israeli team returned home on Monday.

Palestinians fear a repeat of the "Nakba", or catastrophe, when nearly 800,000 people fled or were driven out during the 1948 war that led to Israel's creation. Israel denies the account they were forced out. Trump has said they would have no right to return under his plan for Gaza.

Trump meanwhile wants Saudi Arabia, which wields heavy influence in other Arab and Muslim countries, to normalise ties with Israel. Riyadh has previously said it will not establish ties with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state.

Under his first administration in 2017-21, Trump brokered normalisation accords between Israel and some Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates.

Asked if the UAE could find common ground with Washington on Gaza, Abu Dhabi's ambassador to the US, Yousef Al Otaiba, said Washington's approach was difficult. "But at the end of the day we're all in a solution-seeking business, we just don't know where it's going to land yet," he said.

United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday that peace efforts in the region should be on the basis of a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, state news agency WAM reported.

Trump's Gaza plan upended decades of US Middle East policy which called for a Palestinian state co-existing in peace alongside Israel as the solution to one of the world's most complex and volatile problems.

Aboul Gheit said the idea of the Arab Peace Initiative drawn up by Saudi Arabia in 2002 - in which Arab nations offered Israel normalised relations in return for a statehood deal with the Palestinians and full Israeli withdrawal from territory captured during a 1967 war - would be reintroduced.​

 

[Saif]

Saudi Arabia to host Arab summit on Trump's Gaza plan

Saudi Arabia will host the leaders of four Arab countries at a summit on February 20 to discuss Donald Trump's proposal for a US takeover of Gaza, a source with knowledge of the preparations said Friday.

www.thedailystar.net

Saudi Arabia to host Arab summit on Trump's Gaza plan

People carry flags and banners as they protest against US president Trump's proposal for the United States to take over the Gaza Strip and to move more than two million Palestinians out of the territory, in Amman on February 14, 2025. Photo: AFP

Saudi Arabia will host the leaders of four Arab countries at a summit on February 20 to discuss Donald Trump's proposal for a US takeover of Gaza, a source with knowledge of the preparations said Friday.

The leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will attend the summit, which will take place ahead of an Arab League meeting in Cairo on February 27 on the same issue, the source said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, another source said the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmud Abbas, would also attend.

Trump sparked a global outcry with his proposal for the United States to take over the Gaza Strip and to move more than two million Palestinians out of the territory, citing Egypt or Jordan as possible destinations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has since suggested Saudi Arabia could also host Palestinians, in remarks that drew condemnation from the Arab world, but which some Israeli media characterised as a joke.

Arab countries have come together in a rare united front, outraged by the idea of displacing the Palestinians en masse.

For Palestinians, any forced displacement evokes memories of the "Nakba", or catastrophe -- the mass displacement of their ancestors during Israel's creation in 1948.

But Trump has threatened to cut off a vital aid lifeline to long-standing allies Jordan and Egypt should they refuse to come on board.

Jordan is already home to more than two million Palestinian refugees. More than half of the country's population of 11 million is of Palestinian origin.

Egypt put forward its own proposal for the reconstruction of Gaza under a framework that would allow for the Palestinians to remain in the territory.​

 

[Saif]

Hamas, Israel complete 6th hostage-prisoner swap

Palestinian militants released three Israeli hostages on Saturday in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian inmates freed by Israel, completing the latest swap despite fears the Gaza truce deal was near collapse.

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Hamas, Israel complete 6th hostage-prisoner swap
Agence France-Presse . Khan Yunis, Palestinian Territories 16 February, 2025, 01:07

Relatives of freed Palestinian prisoners, released as part of the sixth hostage-prisoner exchange, celebrate with flag at the European Hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday. | AFP photo

Palestinian militants released three Israeli hostages on Saturday in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian inmates freed by Israel, completing the latest swap despite fears the Gaza truce deal was near collapse.

An AFP journalist saw masked Hamas gunmen parade the hostages onto a stage in front of a crowd in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Yunis, where they were made to make statements into a microphone before being handed over to the Red Cross and taken back to Israeli territory.

Clutching gift bags given by their captors and certificates to mark the end of their captivity, the three men, flanked by fighters, called for the completion of further hostage exchanges under the ceasefire deal.

Not long after, a busload of Palestinian prisoners departed Israel’s Ofer Prison and was greeted by a cheering crowd in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, an AFP journalist said.

More buses took inmates from an Israeli prison in the Negev desert to the Gaza Strip, according to another AFP journalist.

Saturday’s swap, the sixth since the truce took effect on January 19, came after Hamas had threatened to pause hostage releases over alleged Israeli violations, while Israel had threatened to resume the war if it did.

The three hostages—Israeli-American Sagui Dekel-Chen, Israeli-Russian Sasha Trupanov and Israeli-Argentine Yair Horn—had been held by Gaza militants since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war 16 months ago.

Friends and family members of the hostages shed tears of joy at the sight of their loved ones on Saturday.

‘Finally, Sasha can be surrounded by his loved ones and begin a new path,’ Trupanov’s family said in a statement.

Dekel-Chen’s wife, Avital, said in a call to her sister aired by Israel’s Kan public broadcaster: ‘My breath has returned. He looks so handsome.’

Later in the day, hundreds of Palestinians freed by Israel reached Khan Yunis, where they threw up victory signs and waved to a jubilant crowd, an AFP reporter said.

According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group, Israel was to release 333 Gazans who were taken into custody during the war, as well as 36 prisoners serving life sentences, 24 of whom were due for deportation under the terms of the truce deal.

Israel confirmed it had released a total of 369 prisoners.

Images broadcast on Israeli media showed Palestinian prisoners ahead of their release wearing sweatshirts featuring the prison service logo, a Star of David, and the slogan: ‘We will not forget and we will not forgive.’

After the deal had appeared to be on the brink of collapse, a Hamas official on Friday said the group expected talks on a second phase of the ceasefire to begin early next week. Another source familiar with the talks offered a similar timeline.

The negotiations on the second phase are meant to lay out steps towards a more permanent end to the war.

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose country is Israel’s top backer and one of the truce mediators, is due to arrive in Israel late Saturday ahead of expected talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the truce.

An Israeli campaign group, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, warned in a statement against the ‘collapse’ of the ongoing agreement, calling on the parties to ‘continue to use this momentum to make a swift and responsible agreement for everyone’ still held in Gaza.

Last week’s release sparked anger in Israel and beyond after the freed hostages were paraded onstage, with their emaciated state sparking concern over conditions in captivity.

There were also fears for Palestinians in Israeli custody after several were hospitalised following their release last week. The Red Crescent said four of those released on Saturday were also transferred to hospital in the West Bank.

The ceasefire has been under massive strain since US president Donald Trump proposed a takeover of the Gaza Strip under which the territory’s population of more than two million people would be moved to Egypt or Jordan.

Arab countries have come together to reject Trump’s plan, and Saudi Arabia will host the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on Thursday for a summit on the issue.

A joint statement from the heads of Christian churches in Jerusalem also said Gazans ‘must not be forced into exile’.​

 

[Saif]

Israel strike kills 2 cops in Gaza

Hamas said an Israeli strike on Sunday killed two police officers and wounded another near the southern Gaza city of Rafah, a day after Israel and militants carried out a hostage-prisoner swap.

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Israel strike kills 2 cops in Gaza
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 16 February, 2025, 22:14

File photo

Hamas said an Israeli strike on Sunday killed two police officers and wounded another near the southern Gaza city of Rafah, a day after Israel and militants carried out a hostage-prisoner swap.

‘Two police officers have been martyred, and a third has been critically injured as a result of an Israeli air strike that targeted them while they were deployed to secure aid in the Al-Shouka area, east of Rafah, this morning’, the Hamas interior ministry said in a statement.

The Israeli military said in a statement that its air force had conducted an air strike in Gaza, aiming at ‘several armed individuals’.

‘Earlier today, several armed individuals moving toward troops in the southern Gaza Strip were struck by an (Israeli Air Force) aircraft,’ it said in a statement.

A fragile ceasefire that came into effect on January 19 between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has largely brought a pause to more than 15 months of fighting in the coastal Palestinian territory.

Since then, Israel has conducted at least one other air strike in Gaza. On February 2, it said one of its aircraft fired towards a ‘suspicious vehicle’ in central Gaza.

The ceasefire was more recently put to test when Hamas said it would not release Israeli hostages on Saturday, accusing Israel of violating terms of the agreement, particularly on the topic of aid entry.

In response, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned Israel would resume ‘intense fighting’ in Gaza unless Hamas returns the hostages by noon on Saturday.

Following intense mediation by Qatar and Egypt the latest hostage-prisoner swap was carried out on Saturday.​

 

[Saif]

Palestinians to decide Gaza future: Qatar

Qatar, a key mediator in the Gaza conflict, said on Tuesday that Palestinians — not outsiders — must decide the territory’s future after the Israel-Hamas war...

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Palestinians to decide Gaza future: Qatar
Agence France-Presse . Doha 18 February, 2025, 23:11

Qatar, a key mediator in the Gaza conflict, said on Tuesday that Palestinians — not outsiders — must decide the territory’s future after the Israel-Hamas war.

Foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari told a Doha news conference that the issue was ‘a Palestinian question’, after Israel insisted on removing Hamas and the United States proposed taking over the territory.

‘From our perspective, this is a Palestinian question on what happens post this conflict,’ said Ansari when asked about Israel’s stated objective to eliminate Hamas.

‘It is a Palestinian question on who represents the Palestinians in an official capacity and also the political groups and parties in the political sphere,’ he said.

Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar said earlier Tuesday that negotiations for the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire, which Qatar helped broker, would begin this week.

The second phase of the truce is meant to facilitate the release of all remaining hostages seized during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war, and lead to a permanent end to the fighting.

Saar said Israel demanded the ‘complete demilitarisation of Gaza’ and would ‘not accept the continued presence of Hamas or any other terrorist groups’ in the territory, ruled by Hamas since 2007.

US president Donald Trump has proposed a takeover of the Gaza Strip, under which its 2.4 million inhabitants would be moved to Egypt or Jordan.

The plan has drawn widespread condemnation, with Arab states preparing a response.

Trump’s proposal has added strains to the fragile Gaza ceasefire, which has largely halted the violence since it took effect on January 19, after more than 15 months of war.

The on-going first phase of the truce, which is set to expire on March 1, has so far seen the release of 19 Israeli hostages in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinians in Israeli custody.

More hostage-prisoner exchanges are expected before the end of the first phase, which has also allowed humanitarian aid into besieged Gaza.

Hamas however has accused Israel of blocking the entry of prefabricated structures and heavy machinery to clear rubble.

Ansari, the Qatari spokesman, said that ‘the aid the enters the Gaza Strip today is insufficient’.

‘Using humanitarian aid as a bargaining chip in negotiations is a crime in and of itself.’

Efforts were underway to secure the release this week of all remaining living hostages eligible to be freed from Gaza under the first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal, an Israeli official source said Tuesday.

Of the 33 hostages set to be freed under phase one of the deal, 19 have already been released and Israel says eight are dead. That leaves just six living hostages slated for release in the current stage.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is making tremendous efforts to release all six remaining living hostages’ this week, and to secure the bodies of four others, the Israeli official source said.

A Palestinian source close to the negotiations said that ‘a proposal was presented by the mediators in recent days’ for Gaza militants ‘to deliver the bodies of several Israeli prisoners before Friday, and to increase the number’ of living captives to be released during the seventh hostage-prisoner swap on Saturday.​

 

[Saif]

GAZA TRUCE PHASE TWO: Hamas says ready to free all hostages at once

Hamas signalled on Wednesday that it was willing to free all remaining hostages held in Gaza in a single swap during the next phase of the on-going ceasefire agreement...

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GAZA TRUCE PHASE TWO: Hamas says ready to free all hostages at once
Agence France-Presse . Gaza City 20 February, 2025, 00:19

An Israeli bulldozer tears up a street during an on-going raid in the Tulkarem camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday. Since January 21, the Israeli military has been conducting a major operation in the ‘triangle’ of Jenin, Tubas and Tulkarem, where half a million Palestinians live. | AFP photo

Hamas signalled on Wednesday that it was willing to free all remaining hostages held in Gaza in a single swap during the next phase of the on-going ceasefire agreement.

Israel and Hamas are currently in the process of implementing phase one of the fragile Gaza truce, which has held since taking effect on January 19 despite accusations of violations on both sides.

Israel’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that talks would begin ‘this week’ on the second phase, which is expected to lay out a more permanent end to the war.

‘We have informed the mediators that Hamas is ready to release all hostages in one batch during the second phase of the agreement, rather than in stages, as in the current first phase,’ senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said.

He did not clarify how many hostages were currently being held by Hamas or other militant groups.

Nunu said this step was meant ‘to confirm our seriousness and complete readiness to move forward in resolving this issue, as well as to continue steps towards cementing the ceasefire and achieving a sustainable truce’.

Under the ceasefire’s first phase, 19 Israeli hostages have been released by militants so far in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails in a series of Red Cross-mediated swaps.

Wednesday’s offer came after Israel and Hamas announced a deal for the return of all six remaining living hostages eligible for release under phase one in a single swap this weekend.

After the completion of the first phase, 58 hostages will remain in Gaza.

Hamas also agreed on Tuesday to return the bodies of eight dead hostages in two groups this week and next, including the remains of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Kfir and Ariel, who have become national symbols in Israel of the hostages’ ordeal.

The boys’ father Yarden Bibas was taken hostage separately on October 7, 2023, and was released alive during an earlier hostage-prisoner swap.

While Hamas said Shiri Bibas and her boys were killed in an Israeli air strike early in the war, Israel has never confirmed this, and many supporters remain unconvinced of their deaths, including members of the Bibas family.

‘I ask that no one eulogise my family just yet. We have held onto hope for 16 months, and we are not giving up now,’ the boys’ aunt, Ofri Bibas, wrote on Facebook on Tuesday night following Hamas’s announcement.

Israeli authorities have confirmed that the remains of four hostages are due to be returned on Thursday, although they have not officially named them.

The national forensic institute in Tel Aviv has mobilised 10 doctors to expedite the identification process, public broadcaster Kan reported on Wednesday.

Hamas and its allies took 251 people hostage during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, of whom 70 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

The October attack resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,297 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.​

 

[Saif]

Hamas, Israel agree return of six hostages, bodies held in Gaza

Hamas and Israel announced a deal Tuesday for the release of six living hostages from Gaza and the return of four captives' bodies

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Hamas, Israel agree return of six hostages, bodies held in Gaza
AFP
Jerusalem
Published: 19 Feb 2025, 08: 40

Palestinians walk past tents lining the streets amid the rubble of destroyed buildings in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on 18 February 2025, as people return to northern parts of Gaza during a current ceasefire deal in the war between Israel and Hamas. AFP

Hamas and Israel announced a deal Tuesday for the release of six living hostages from Gaza and the return of four captives' bodies -- including, the militants said, the remains of two young boys seen as national symbols back home.

The family of hostages Shiri Bibas and her sons Ariel and Kfir, the last remaining Israeli children held in Gaza, said they were "in turmoil" at the news, noting they had still received no "official confirmation" of their loved ones' deaths.

Thirty-three Israeli hostages were due for release under the first phase of the fragile Gaza truce that took effect last month, with 19 freed so far in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners. Of the remaining 14, Israel says eight are dead.

Hamas "decided to release on Saturday, February 22, the remaining living (Israeli) prisoners whose release was agreed in the first phase, numbering six", the group's top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said in a televised address.

The group also "decided to hand over four bodies on Thursday, among them (those of) the Bibas family", Hayya added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office subsequently confirmed that during indirect negotiations in Cairo, "agreements were reached" for the six living hostages to be handed over on Saturday, in addition to four bodies on Thursday and four more next week.

A Bibas family statement said it had been "in turmoil following (the) Hamas spokesperson's announcement about the planned return of our Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir this Thursday".

The trio were abducted during Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war, with Ariel and Kfir coming to symbolise the hostages' plight for many Israelis. Their father Yarden Bibas was also taken hostage separately, and was released alive during a previous hostage-prisoner exchange.

Hamas has previously said that Shiri Bibas and the children were killed in an Israeli air strike in November 2023, but Israel has not confirmed their deaths.

"Until we receive definitive confirmation, our journey is not over," the family statement said.

'Reluctantly hopeful'

The bodies due to be handed over on Thursday are the first to be returned to Israel by Hamas since the war began.

Israel's military issued a statement on Tuesday urging the public not to take notice of what it called "unverified rumours" about the hostages, without elaborating.

Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum published the names of the six living hostages due for release on Saturday, saying it "welcomes with profound joy the return of Eliya Cohen, Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Hisham Al-Sayed and Avera Mengistu".

Shoham's family said it had been informed he was scheduled for release, adding: "While we are reluctantly hopeful, we remain cautious and pray that Tal will return safely."

Five Thais held in Gaza since the October 2023 attack have also been released outside the scope of the truce deal.

The truce has held despite both sides trading accusations of violations, and despite the strain placed on it by US President Donald Trump's widely condemned plan to take control of devastated Gaza and relocate its population.

Saudi Arabia is set to host the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on Friday to present their own plan for Gaza's reconstruction while ensuring that Palestinians remain on their land.

Trump floated Egypt and Jordan as possible destinations for displaced Gazans, but both countries rejected the idea.

After the Saudi meeting, Egypt will host an extraordinary Arab League meeting on Gaza on March 4.

For Palestinians, any forced displacement evokes memories of the "Nakba", or catastrophe -- the mass exile of their ancestors during Israel's creation in 1948.

'Demilitarisation'

Israel, meanwhile, demanded on Tuesday the "complete demilitarisation of Gaza", with Foreign Minister Gideon Saar saying it would "not accept the continued presence of Hamas or any other terrorist groups" in the Palestinian territory.

Saar also said Israel would begin negotiations "this week" on the truce's second phase, which aims to lay out a more permanent end to the war. Phase one is due to expire on March 1.

Qatar, a key mediator in the Gaza conflict, said on Tuesday that Palestinians must decide the territory's future.

"It is a Palestinian question on who represents the Palestinians in an official capacity and also the political groups and parties in the political sphere," said foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari.

Hamas's 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,291 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.

Of 251 people seized in the Hamas attack, 70 remain in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's military said that in southern Gaza on Tuesday, soldiers fired on a man after he ignored warning shots. A hospital source in Khan Yunis said it had received the body of a 15-year-old.​