TEL AVIV, Israel: Forensic scientists identified the remains of two Israeli child hostages handed over by Hamas but another body said to be their mother was “an anonymous, unidentified body,” the Israeli military said Friday.
The shock announcement regarding the mother, Shiri Bibas, came as a ceasefire that’s paused the fighting in the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip remains shaky over a month after it began. Recovering the bodies of the Bibas family had been a major issue for the Israeli public, drawing flag-waving crowds along highways on a rainy day to honor the processional carrying the remains.
Central Israel rattled separately by a series of explosions Thursday on three parked buses, and the military restricted Palestinian movement and sealed off parts of the occupied West Bank.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement the Israeli military would “carry out an intensive operation against centers of terrorism” in the West Bank after the bus blasts, raising the specter of a further escalation there.
Hamas hands over four bodies
Hamas militants had turned over four bodies Thursday. One was identified as Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was abducted during the Hamas attack that started the war on Oct. 7, 2023.
The remains of the young brothers, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, were identified by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine in collaboration with police and the family was notified, the Israeli military said in a statement. It said the boys were “brutally murdered” in captivity in November 2023, citing unspecified intelligence and forensics findings.
The identification process for the additional body determined it was not that of their mother, Shiri Bibas, or any other hostage, the Israeli military said.
“This is a violation of utmost severity by the Hamas terrorist organization, which is obligated under the agreement to return four deceased hostages,” the military said. “We demand that Hamas return Shiri home along with all our hostages.”
Hamas did not immediately respond to Israel’s announcement that the body was not of the boys’ mother.
Israeli public mourns dead hostages
Hamas has said that all four were killed along with their guards in Israeli airstrikes. But Netanyahu’s office said Thursday that Lifshitz was killed in captivity by the Islamic Jihad militant group. The Israeli military statement also said the boys had been “murdered.”
Militants who handed over the bodies displayed four black coffins on a stage in the Gaza Strip surrounded by banners, including one depicting Netanyahu as a vampire. On each coffin, a photo of one of the hostages was stapled to the side.
Large numbers of masked and armed militants looked on as the coffins were loaded onto Red Cross vehicles before being driven to Israeli forces. The military later held a small funeral ceremony, at the request of the families, before transferring the bodies to a laboratory in Israel for formal identification using DNA.
In Tel Aviv where the bodies were transported, a double rainbow unfolded across the sky just before sunset. Thousands of people gathered at the city’s Hostage Square and recited traditional mourning prayers. Some held orange balloons, in honor of the Bibas boys, and the crowd swelled after sundown as musicians performed subdued ballads, matching the nation’s grief.
“Our hearts — the hearts of an entire nation — lie in tatters,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said. “On behalf of the State of Israel, I bow my head and ask for forgiveness. Forgiveness for not protecting you on that terrible day. Forgiveness for not bringing you home safely.”
Lifshitz’s family said after the handover that his remains had been officially identified. His son, Yizhar, told an Israeli TV station that it had brought some closure to the family.
“On a certain level, it closes the small chance that we had thought about,” he said. “It is also closure that he will be buried back on the kibbutz. It’s a difficult day.”
Infant was the youngest taken hostage
Kfir Bibas, who at 9 months was the youngest hostage, was a red-headed infant with a toothless smile when militants stormed the family’s home on Oct. 7, 2023. His brother, Ariel, was 4. Video from that day showed a terrified Shiri swaddling the boys as militants led them into Gaza.
Her husband, Yarden Bibas, was taken separately and released this month.
Relatives in Israel have clung to hope, marking the boys’ birthdays.
A cousin of Shiri Bibas who lives in Buenos Aires, told the local Radio Con Vos station she has been reliving the trauma of the abduction. Romina Miasnik said she hoped her loved ones “can become a symbol of something new, of coexistence, of hatred no longer having a place.”
Supporters throughout Israel have worn orange — a reference to the two boys’ hair color — and a popular children’s song was written in their honor.
Like the Bibas family, Oded Lifshitz was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, along with his wife, Yocheved, who was freed early in the war as an apparent humanitarian gesture.
Hamas-led militants abducted 251 hostages, including about 30 children, in the Oct. 7 attack, in which they also killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
More than half the hostages, and most of the women and children, have been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israeli forces have rescued eight and have recovered dozens of bodies of people killed in the initial attack or who died in captivity.
A devastating Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed over 48,200 Palestinians, local health officials there say, without distinguishing between combatants and civilians.
It’s not clear if the ceasefire will last
Hamas is set to free six living hostages on Saturday in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, and says it will release four more bodies next week, completing the first phase. That will leave the militants with about 60 hostages, all men and about half believed to be dead.
Hamas has said it won’t release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal. Netanyahu, with the full backing of the Trump administration, says he’s committed to destroying Hamas’ military and governing capacities and returning all the hostages, goals widely seen as mutually exclusive.
Trump’s proposal to remove about 2 million Palestinians from Gaza so the US can own and rebuild it, which has been welcomed by Netanyahu but universally rejected by Palestinians and Arab countries, has thrown the ceasefire into further doubt.
Hamas could be reluctant to free more hostages if it believes that the war will resume with the goal of annihilating the group or forcibly transferring Gaza’s population.
Israel identifies remains of child hostages but says body Hamas returned was not their mother
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Israel identifies remains of child hostages but says body Hamas returned was not their mother
- Negotiations for next stage of ceasefire due to be held soon
- Hearts of an entire nation ‘in tatters,’ President Herzog says
Houthis say US warplanes carried out 17 strikes in Yemen
- Washington on March 15 announced a military offensive against the Iranian-backed Houthis
Sanaa: Houthi media in Yemen reported Wednesday at least 17 strikes in Saada and Amran, blaming the United States for the attacks.
The rebels’ Ansarollah website said US warplanes carried out “aggressive air raids... causing material damage to citizens’ property,” but gave no details of casualties.
Washington on March 15 announced a military offensive against the Iranian-backed Houthis, promising to use overwhelming force until the group stopped firing on vessels in the key shipping routes of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
That day saw a wave of US air strikes that officials said killed senior Houthi leaders, and which the rebels’ health ministry said killed 53 people.
Since then, Houthi-held parts of Yemen have witnessed near-daily attacks that the group has blamed on the United States, with the rebels announcing the targeting of US military ships and Israel.
The Houthis began targeting shipping vessels after the start of the Gaza war, claiming solidarity with Palestinians, but paused their campaign when a ceasefire took effect in Gaza in January.
Earlier this month, they threatened to renew attacks in the vital maritime trade route over Israel’s aid blockade on the Palestinian territory, triggering the first US strikes on Yemen since President Donald Trump took office in January.
Last week, Trump threatened to annihilate the Houthis and warned Tehran against continuing to aid the group.
Told to fix notorious prison, Israel just relocated alleged abuses, detainees say
- The alleged abuses include beatings, excessive handcuffing, and poor diet and health care
- Military transferred hundreds of detainees to newly opened camps
JERUSALEM: Under pressure from Israel’s top court to improve conditions at a facility notorious for mistreating Palestinians seized in Gaza, the military transferred hundreds of detainees to newly opened camps.
But abuses at these camps were just as bad, according to Israeli human rights organizations that interviewed dozens of current and former detainees and are now asking the same court to force the military to fix the problem once and for all.
What the detainees’ testimonies show, rights groups say, is that instead of correcting alleged abuses against Palestinians held without charge or trial — including beatings, excessive handcuffing, and poor diet and health care — Israel’s military just shifted where they take place.
“What we’ve seen is the erosion of the basic standards for humane detention,” said Jessica Montell, the director of Hamoked, one of the rights groups petitioning the Israeli government.
Asked for a response, the military said it complies with international law and “completely rejects allegations regarding the systematic abuse of detainees.”
The sprawling Ofer Camp and the smaller Anatot Camp, both built in the West Bank, were supposed to resolve problems rights groups documented at a detention center in the Negev desert called Sde Teiman. That site was intended to temporarily hold and treat militants captured during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. But it morphed into a long-term detention center infamous for brutalizing Palestinians rounded up in Gaza, often without being charged.
Detainees transferred to Ofer and Anatot say conditions there were no better, according to more than 30 who were interviewed by lawyers for Hamoked and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel. AP is the first international news organization to report on the affidavits from PHRI.
“They would punish you for anything” said Khaled Alserr, 32, a surgeon from Gaza who spent months at Ofer Camp and agreed to speak about his experiences. He was released after six months without charge.
Alserr said he lost count of the beatings he endured from soldiers after being rounded up in March of last year during a raid at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. “You’d be punished for making eye contact, for asking for medicine, for looking up toward the sky,” said Alserr.
Other detainees’ accounts to the rights groups remain anonymous. Their accounts could not be independently confirmed, but their testimonies – given separately – were similar.
The Supreme Court has given the military until the end of March to respond to the alleged abuses at Ofer.
Leaving Sde Teiman
Since the war began, Israel has seized thousands in Gaza that it suspects of links to Hamas. Thousands have also been released, often after months of detention.
Hundreds of detainees were freed during the ceasefire that began in January. But with ground operations recently restarted in Gaza, arrests continue. The military won’t say how many detainees it holds.
After Israel’s Supreme Court ordered better treatment at Sde Teiman, the military said in June it was transferring hundreds of detainees, including 500 sent to Ofer.
Ofer was built on an empty lot next to a civilian prison of the same name. Satellite photos from January show a paved, walled compound, with 24 mobile homes that serve as cells.
Anatot, built on a military base in a Jewish settlement, has two barracks, each with room for about 50 people, according to Hamoked.
Under wartime Israeli law, the military can hold Palestinians from Gaza for 45 days without access to the outside world. In practice, many go far longer.
Whenever detainees met with Hamoked lawyers, they were “dragged violently” into a cell — sometimes barefoot and often blindfolded, and their hands and feet remained shackled throughout the meetings, the rights group said in a letter to the military’s advocate general.
“I don’t know where I am,” one detainee told a lawyer.
Newly freed Israeli hostages have spoken out about their own harsh conditions in Gaza. Eli Sharabi, who emerged gaunt after 15 months of captivity, told Israel’s Channel 12 news that his captors said hostages’ conditions were influenced by Israel’s treatment of Palestinian prisoners.
Detainees allege regular beatings
Alserr said he was kept with 21 others from Gaza in a 40-square-meter cell with eight bunk beds. Some slept on the floor on camping mattresses soldiers had punctured so they couldn’t inflate, he said. Scabies and lice were rampant. He said he was only allowed outside his cell once a week.
Detainees from Ofer and Anatot said they were regularly beaten with fists and batons. Some said they were kept in handcuffs for months, including while they slept and ate — and unshackled only when allowed to shower once a week.
Three prisoners held in Anatot told the lawyers that they were blindfolded constantly. One Anatot detainee said that soldiers woke them every hour during the night and made them stand for a half-hour.
In response to questions from AP, the military said it was unaware of claims that soldiers woke detainees up. It said detainees have regular shower access and are allowed daily yard time. It said occasional overcrowding meant some detainees were forced to sleep on “mattresses on the floor.”
The military said it closed Anatot in early February because it was no longer needed for “short-term incarceration” when other facilities were full. Sde Teiman, which has been upgraded, is still in use.
Nutrition and health care
Alserr said the worst thing about Ofer was medical care. He said guards refused to give him antacids for a chronic ulcer. After 40 days, he felt a rupture. In the truck heading to the hospital, soldiers tied a bag around his head.
“They beat me all the way to the hospital,” he said. “At the hospital they refused to remove the bag, even when they were treating me.”
The military said all detainees receive checkups and proper medical care. It said “prolonged restraint during detention” was only used in exceptional cases and taking into account the condition of each detainee.
Many detainees complained of hunger. They said they received three meals a day of a few slices of white bread with a cucumber or tomato, and sometimes some chocolate or custard.
That amounts to about 1,000 calories a day, or half what is necessary, said Lihi Joffe, an Israeli pediatric dietician who read some of the Ofer testimonies and called the diet “not humane.”
After rights groups complained in November, Joffe said she saw new menus at Ofer with greater variety, including potatoes and falafel — an improvement, she said, but still not enough.
The military said a nutritionist approves detainees’ meals, and that they always have access to water.
Punished for seeing a lawyer
Two months into his detention, Alserr had a 5-minute videoconference with a judge, who said he would stay in prison for the foreseeable future.
Such hearings are “systematically” brief, according to Nadia Daqqa, a Hamoked attorney. No lawyers are present and detainees are not allowed to talk, she said.
Several months later, Alserr was allowed to meet with a lawyer. But he said he was forced to kneel in the sun for hours beforehand.
Another detainee told the lawyer from Physicians for Human Rights that he underwent the same punishment. ”All the time, he has been threatening to take his own life,” the lawyer wrote in notes affixed to the affidavit.
Since his release in September, Alserr has returned to work at the hospital in Gaza.
The memories are still painful, but caring for patients again helps, he said. “I’m starting to forget ... to feel myself again as a human being.”
Sudan army denies killing civilians in market attack
- At least 270 killed in airstrike in North Darfur amid conflict with paramilitary rivals
“False claims such as this arise whenever our forces exercise their constitutional and legitimate right to engage hostile targets,” military spokesman Nabil Abdallah said. “We abide in our air strikes by the rules of targeting in accordance with international law, and we absolutely cannot target innocent civilians.”
The army has been fighting the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since April 2023, and both sides have been accused of war crimes. The conflict has killed at least 150,000 people and displaced about 12 million.
The strike in Darfur came days after the army reclaimed the presidential palace in Khartoum in a major victory over the paramilitaries. North Darfur state capital El-Fasher, 40 km south of Tora, is the only regional state capital the Rapid Support Forces have not captured, despite besieging the city for ten months and regularly attacking the displacement camps that surround it.
Turkiye, US want to lift defense industry restrictions after talks, Turkish source says
- Ties between the US and Turkiye have drifted away from a strategic partnership in recent years as disagreements between the two long-standing treaty allies have widened
- The two emphasized the importance of stability in Syria and in the Balkans, while discussing efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war, and the need for a ceasefire in Gaza, the source added
ANKARA/WASHINGTON: Turkiye and the United States want to remove obstacles to defense industry cooperation, a Turkish Foreign Ministry source said on Wednesday, after talks between the NATO allies’ top diplomats in Washington.
On Tuesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan kicked off a two-day visit to Washington, where he was expected to ask Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other US officials to remove US sanctions on Turkiye and allow it back into a crucial fighter jet program.
The visit comes as Ankara seeks warmer ties with Washington under the administration of President Donald Trump and just days after a phone call between Trump and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan that a top Trump aide described as “transformational.”
The top Turkish diplomat’s visit also comes at a critical time for Erdogan, after his main political rival and Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, was jailed pending trial on Sunday, prompting the largest anti-government protests in over a decade.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Turkish foreign minister meets Rubio in Washington
• Turkey wants back into F-35 program, lifting of CAATSA sanctions
• Trump and Turkey's Erdogan had 'transformational' phone call
Ties between the US and Turkiye have drifted away from a strategic partnership in recent years as disagreements between the two long-standing treaty allies have widened.
The administration of former President Joe Biden kept Turkiye at arm’s length over what it saw as the fellow NATO member’s close ties with Russia. Under Trump, who views Moscow much more favorably, Ankara is hoping for a warmer relationship with Washington. It also plans to capitalize on the personal ties between the two leaders.
During the meeting between Fidan and Rubio on Tuesday, both sides “clearly put forth their political will to lift obstacles to cooperation in the defense industry field,” the source said, adding they also followed up on matters discussed between Trump and Erdogan.
“Technical talks will be held for the resolution of existing problems,” the person added, without elaborating.
During his first term, Trump initially ignored advice from his aides to impose sanctions on Turkiye under its Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) over Ankara’s acquisition of Russian S-400 air defense missile systems in 2019. He then took the step in 2020.
That acquisition also led to Turkiye’s removal from the F-35 jet program, where it was a manufacturer and buyer. Ankara says its removal is unjust and illegal, and has demanded to rejoin or be reimbursed for its investment in the program.
Conversations between the allies on how to resolve the S-400 deadlock were ongoing under Biden. Turkiye had pledged to keep the systems non-operational, a source familiar with the discussions said, but a breakthrough never came.
A Turkish official, requesting anonymity, told Reuters ahead of Fidan’s visit that Ankara was aiming to agree with Washington that keeping the S-400s non-operational can be enough to resolve the matter.
RUSSIA IMPACT
During the Biden era, the allies had settled into a new phase of relations, with a more transactional focus rather than based on shared values, as differences over policies on Syria, the war in Gaza, and judicial matters persisted.
Since coming back into office on January 20, Trump upended Biden’s policy to isolate Moscow and provide unwavering support to Kyiv and instead focused on ending Russia’s war in Ukraine. His shift spooked European leaders who feared Washington could be turning its back to Europe and bolstered Ankara’s role as a potential partner in reshaping European security.
The Turkish official said discussions between Washington and Ankara had “taken a new dimension” after Trump’s shift in approach to Moscow.
“If US sanctions on Russia are to be lifted, it becomes illogical for CAATSA to be implemented on third countries. As much as this issue is about Turkiye-USA ties, it is also about Turkiye-Russia ties,” the official added.
Sources familiar with the matter said the phone call between Erdogan and Trump may bring positive momentum to conversations in coming days, though no promises were made.
“The president had a great conversation with Erdogan a couple of days ago. Really transformational, I would describe it,” Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff said in an interview with right-wing podcaster Tucker Carlson.
Exclusion from the F-35 program pushed Turkiye to purchase 40 Lockheed Martin Block-70 F-16 fighter jets. However, despite agreeing on the procurement, there has been little progress on the acquisition for months.
The Turkish source said Fidan and Rubio also discussed head of state-level visits to be held in the coming period, without elaborating.
The two also emphasized the importance of stability in Syria and in the Balkans, while discussing efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war, and the need for a ceasefire in Gaza, the source added.
UAE president discusses Gaza with Donald Trump, reviews recent bilateral agreements
- Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed reiterates to his US counterpart the UAE’s commitment to a 2-state solution to Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- The leaders also review the outcomes of the official visit to Washington last week by the UAE’s national security adviser
LONDON: The president of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, spoke on Tuesday with his American counterpart, Donald Trump, about several Middle Eastern issues including the conflict in Gaza.
During their telephone conversation, Sheikh Mohammed reiterated the UAE’s commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the foundation for a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the region.
He also addressed the ongoing efforts to secure a lasting ceasefire agreement in Gaza and maintain regional stability, and emphasized the need for vital humanitarian aid to reach the people in the Palestinian territory, the Emirates News Agency reported.
The leaders also reviewed the outcomes of an official visit to Washington last week by the UAE’s national security adviser, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al-Nahyan. Significant agreements between the two nations were reached during his trip in areas including artificial intelligence, advanced technology, infrastructure and energy.
Sheikh Mohammed and Trump reiterated their shared commitment to the enhancement of strategic cooperation for mutual benefit, the news agency added.
