Six living hostages are due to come back on Saturday [UPDATED]
[UPDATE 8:18 PM]: Israel has announced that the Bibas family’s bodies are due to be returned Thursday:
Israel has confirmed that Hamas’ youngest hostages, Kfira and Ariel Bibas, and their mother have been killed in Gaza — and their bodies will be returned to the Jewish state.
The news came as a crushing blow to the Bibas family, who continue to hold onto hope that the brothers and their mother, Shiri, are still alive until they return home.
Ofri Bibas, Shiri’s sister-in-law, said the family’s faith would not waver as she slammed the Israeli government for publicly naming her loved ones as dead on Wednesday before recieving their bodies.
“For 16 months, we have been waiting for certainty that they couldn’t provide us, and now it’s being decided before they’re even here?? Before they’ve undergone identification??,” Ofri wrote on Facebook.
The announcement by Israel is somewhat confusing to me. It’s been clear for a long long time that it’s highly likely the mother and her two children are dead – Hamas had announced it many many months ago. But Israel kept saying it couldn’t be confirmed. Are they actually confirming it now? And based on what new information? If there is no new information, why not wait till the bodies are identified?
There is a fourth person whose body is being returned Thursday. It is Oded Lifshitz, 84, “a veteran peace activist.”
So a mother in the prime of life, a baby, and a toddler; plus an elderly man. Hamas must be so proud. And it shouldn’t escape notice that Lifshitz was a peace activist. Not only has Lifshitz died, but that dream died, too – on October 7. His elderly wife was also kidnapped, but she was released in one of the first exchanges. Now she must deal with the knowledge of his death in captivity.]
The plan is for six living hostages to be returned to Israel on Saturday. After that, it will be just dead bodies being returned, to end Phase I over two more weeks. Six living hostages in one day represents a doubling of the usual number, although I don’t know what that may signify.
There’s also a report that Hamas has said they’ll release all the hostages in Phase II if Israel promises a permanent ceasefire (and basically, a Hamas win). That’s not an acceptable offer, of course. But so tempting, to get all the hostages back.
From that first link:
… [Four of the living hostages to be released], all of whom were taken on October 7, 2023, include father Tal Shoham and three young men kidnapped from the Nova music festival: Omer Shem-Tov, Omer Wenkert and Eliya Cohen.
The other two of the living hostages due to be released were taken about a decade ago. Yes, a decade: 2014 and 2015. It’s amazing that they’re alive. Their names are Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, both entered Gaza voluntarily, and both have long-term mental health issues:
According to his family and Israeli officials, Mengistu crossed into northern Gaza from the beach at Zikim in September 2014.
The then-28-year-old was spotted by IDF security cameras, but made it through the fence before troops could reach the scene. He was picked up by a Hamas patrol and was not heard from until the terror group released a video purporting to show him alive in early 2023.
Mengistu hails from Ashkelon’s working-class Ethiopian-Israeli community. According to his family, he suffered from mental illness, and was given an exemption from military service. …
Al-Sayed, a 28-year-old Bedouin Israeli from the village of Hura in the Negev desert, entered the Strip near the Erez Crossing in April 2015.
According to his father, this was not his first time going into Gaza, but in this case he was stopped by Hamas and taken into its custody. …
Like Mengistu, al-Sayed suffered from mental illness [schizophrenia, in his case], though he briefly served in the military before being discharged. …
The stories of the other four are much like ones we’ve heard before: they witnessed terrible things prior to being kidnapped, and they have been mistreated while in captivity. Just to take one story, Wenkert’s last text to his parents said he was “scared to death.” He also suffers from colitis, a very serious bowel disorder, and back in November of 2023 was already described by some of the freed hostages as being “dangerously underweight” and in need of medical care. And yet he is alive.
I have saved the most sorrowful news for last: Hamas says that tomorrow it will return the bodies of Shira Bibas and her baby and toddler sons. Hamas has said long ago that they were killed by IDF bombs; getting their bodies may or may not tell a different tale. But it is obscene that Hamas would blame Israel for the death of these three in a war that was started by Hamas murdering over a thousand Israelis and kidnapping about 250, including many children, among them the Bibas boys. Obscene, but typical of their propaganda.
The Bibas family has not given up hope, because Israel has not confirmed the deaths. But I think that their deaths have been fairly clear for a long time, and the return of the father without the rest made it almost certain.
It is that sorrowful news I think will hit all of Israel hard – as well as others outside Israel.
For it is when they view the bodies they will, once again, be reminded of the evil which is Hamas.
I pray that Israelis are braced for it!
I am heartbroken and outraged over the deaths of the Bibas children – although, seeing how other Israeli families with children and babies of the same age were treated by the Hamasniks – not surprised. It hits me most particularly because I have a dearly beloved grandson who is now about the age that the older Bibas child would have been,
I am absolutely drained of any shred of sympathy for the Gaza Palestinians. Not a single drop left. Not that there was an overflowing well of it before October 7th … but there’s none now. No f**ks left to give.
The Hamas claim that the Bibas mother and children were killed by an Israeli airstrike is questionable, and even if true, they were there to be killed because they were forcibly kidnapped and put at risk.
And I just saw again a photo of three small children who were burned alive on Oct. 7, 2023.
Hamas and its Gazan sympathizers (which is practically all of them) are monsters.
If I were Netanyahu:
Give Hamas ten days to return all the hostages.
If they do, say thank you.
If not, write the unreturned hostages off.
In either case, then bomb Gaza until all that moves is rubble.
MEO:
If he did that, it would be the end of his presidency.
This will blow your mind.
https://youtu.be/aPEPztvsJGQ
We all know about the pagers, about 4,000 of them. Israel had 15,000 more powerful explosives in walkie talkies. Many at the top of the IDF wanted to start with Hezbollah (Hezbollah had launched missiles on the 8th, so there was a provocation). Had Israel launched operations against Hezbollah, those walkie-talkies would likely have been distributed (they were in storage) to Hezbollah fighters – they wear them on their vests – and exploded as the pagers were.
Oh, and at that moment in time they also knew exactly where Nesrallah and much of the Hezbollah high command were. The war could have gone very differently. The politicians, not just Netanyahu, said no.
Mike Plaiss:
Yes, i watched that interview the other day. He’s a person I don’t totally trust, and he’s basically saying he was right and they were wrong. They say he’s lying. So, who do you trust? He and Netanyahu have fought bitterly, and Netanyahu ousted him. He has plenty of motive to take revenge on Netanyahu.
Sgt. Mom: “I am absolutely drained of any shred of sympathy for the Gaza Palestinians.”
Amen.
I just watched a couple of videos that show Hamas parading the caskets of those killed around, like they did with the live hostages. And AGAIN average Gazans showed up, with their own children, as if this is just a fun day out. Whipping out their cell phones to capture videos of the “event.” (Oh, if Gaza is such an “open air prison” just where do they get the cell phones from?)
Theirs is a sick, very sick, culture. Not one ounce of sympathy for those murdered by Hamas – not even for children.
So, I also have not one ounce of caring for Gazans.
Sadly, it’s obvious doing what Hamas wants will get you only what Hamas wants.
• This blog reminds me of that story – value of communicating priorities on a regular basis – and I am glad that this blog has not “moved on” from writing about Israel.
• I’ll add that I consume a fair amount of news & commentary, and deliberately seek out certain sources for coverage & comments on specific topics – because they do that well.
• This is a favorite source for news & commentary about Israel – and again, glad that this blog has not “moved on” (even after some commentors have wondered in the recent past ‘why so much’).
I watched a few seconds of the Hamas video celebrating the claim that Israel killed the 4 people Hamas captured and held hostage since 7 October 2023. They have a big banner of Netanyahu as a vampire with the claim Israeli missiles killed the hostages. For those thinking that’s probably true, I have a question:
Why would Hamas wait until now to release the bodies and tell the world of this atrocity?
I’m thinking the body decay over that length of time will make it harder to determine cause of death. There is also the more obvious fact that holding the bodies hostage for any length of time made them a bargaining chip whether alive or dead. And finally, smart move to hide your faces and carry weapons when making these claims. It shows the level of trust and care they likely showed the captives.
“‘Why so much’”
Possibly because Hamas has become THE mascot (and righteous cause) of so many of our elite “betters” and “social-justice” warriors in (but also outside of) the “universities” and “government”…
(Just a guess, mind you…)
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BTW, the UN must have suffered a collective double-hernia issuing a statement like that….
The people in those coffins would not have been at risk if they had not been kidnapped and held hostage; even if the story of the Israeli missiles were true, it would not transfer the blame away from the Gazans who put the victims where they were.
Get all the hostages, living and dead, back.
Wait for Hamas to break the ceasefire, it will.
Level Gaza. There are no innocents there, save small children who are being indoctrinated into a death cult.