Summary
We’re pausing our live coverage of the Middle East crisis now – it’s just after 8pm in Tel Aviv and Gaza City. Here’s a summary of what’s been happening today:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed revenge for what he described as a “cruel and malicious violation” of the ceasefire agreement after authorities determined that a body released by Hamas was not an Israeli mother of two small boys, as the militant group had promised. Hamas turned over four bodies yesterday as part of the ceasefire deal. They were supposed to have been those of Shiri Bibas, her sons, Kfir and Ariel, and Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was abducted during the October 7 2023 attack by Hamas that ignited the war. Israeli authorities said they had positively identified the remains of the two boys and of Lifshitz. However, the fourth body was determined to be that of an unidentified woman from Gaza.
Hamas suggested a mix-up of remains might have occurred after Israeli bombing of the area where both the Israeli hostages and Palestinians were present. The group said it would “conduct a thorough review.”
Despite the tense exchanges, there were indications that the ceasefire deal’s next step — the release of six living Israeli hostages on Saturday in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners — would proceed as planned. Israel will free 602 Palestinian prisoners and detainees from jails as part of the swap.
The Bibas family accused Netanyahu of failing to protect their loved ones during Hamas’s 2023 attack and of failing to bring them home. “There is no forgiveness for abandoning them on October 7, and no forgiveness for abandoning them in captivity. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, we did not receive an apology from you in this painful moment,” Ofri Bibas, the sister-in-law of Shiri Bibas, said in a statement.
Netanyahu said he has ordered the Israeli military to carry out an intensive operation against what he called “centres of terrorism” in the West Bank. The Israeli prime minister also said on social media that he had ordered Shin Bet and police to increase “preventative” measures against attacks on Israeli cities. It followed a series of explosions on three parked buses in Bat Yam, a city outside Tel Aviv, on Thursday night. Authorities said they were a suspected terrorist attack. No injuries were reported.
Over half a million children have been left without education across Gaza and the West Bank, according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC). The NGO warned that vital aid for children in the region is being scuppered by increasing violence.
Saudi Arabia’s crown prince held a meeting of leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council states, Egypt and Jordan. The meeting hosted by Mohammed bin Salman had been described as “an informal brotherly gathering” by the state-run Saudi Press Agency. It came ahead of an Arab League summit likely to discuss the Gaza Strip after US President Donald Trump proposed America “take over” the territory and permanently resettle its Palestinian residents, a plan that Arab countries have universally rejected.
The leader of Sinn Fein will boycott St. Patrick’s day events in US over Gaza. Mary Lou McDonald, president of Sinn Fein and First Minister Michelle O’Neill, said they would not attend the celebrations after Trump’s call to exile Palestinians from the enclave.
Updated
Israel-Hamas swap to go ahead despite claim child hostages were killed with ‘bare hands’
Israelis and Palestinians are bracing for another tense hostage, prisoner and detainee exchange on Saturday amid uproar in Israel over allegations that two child hostages were “brutally murdered” by Hamas, and the group’s failure to deliver the body of their mother, instead returning the corpse of an unidentified woman.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Friday afternoon that autopsy results and military intelligence concluded that members of Hamas “used their bare hands” to kill Ariel Bibas, four, and his 10-month-old brother, Kfir, when they were seized in October 2023.
“Their father, [the recently released hostage] Yarden Bibas, looked me in the eyes and asked that the whole world know and be shocked by the way they murdered his children,” the military army spokesperson R Adm Daniel Hagari said in a video address.
In Israel and around the world, the fate of the Bibas family has come to embody the trauma of the Hamas attack that ignited the war in Gaza.
On Friday, Hamas released the names of the six living hostages the militants plan to release over the weekend under the terms of the ceasefire. The Palestinian prisoners media office said that more than 600 Palestinian prisoners were also to be freed.
The announcements are a sign that the fragile deal remains on track despite the tensions caused by the furore surrounding the Bibas’s fate.
Michelle O’Neill has defended her decision not to travel to Washington DC after criticism from opposition parties on both sides of the Irish border.
The Northern Ireland first minister said she could not be part of a St Patrick’s Day reception in the White House because of Donald Trump’s “very dangerous, very threatening rhetoric” on Gaza.
O’Neill and party leader Mary Lou McDonald announced earlier that Sinn Féin would not travel to the US as part of “a principled stance against the threat of mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from Gaza”.
O’Neill told the PA news agency:
I am a first minister for everybody, and I’ve borne that out every day in my role in the last year since I took up that post.
But there are times when political leaders are tasked to make a decision, and I had to make a decision, and I believe that the right decision at this time is to come down the side of humanity.
I couldn’t in good conscious travel to the United States, be part of a Shamrock reception in the White House, at a time where the new US administration is actually actively threatening to remove Palestinian people from their land, to seize their land, and they’ve very much moved away from a two-state solution.
I couldn’t in all conscience make that trip at this time. I just think that there are times whenever we’ll all reflect, and certainly whenever my grandchildren ask me, what did I do whenever the Palestinian people were suffering, I could say that I stood in the sight of humanity.
Updated
Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered an increase in troop numbers and authorised new operations in the occupied West Bank in response to the explosions on empty Israeli buses there yesterday, AP reports
On a visit to the Tulkarem refugee camp, in the West Bank, the Israeli PM said troops were entering militant strongholds, “clearing entire streets” and the homes of alleged militants
Israel’s large-scale military operation in the West Bank, which started immediately after the Israel-Hamas ceasefire began in Gaza, has wreaked widespread damage, killing more than 50 Palestinians and forcing thousands to flee their homes
Israel says its increased military operations are aimed at combating rising Palestinian militant attacks against Israelis. Many Palestinians say the operations only deepen resentment for Israel and prolong the cycle of bloodshed.
Updated
Here’s some more context on the meeting between Arab and Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia.
In a piece published this morning, Madawi al-Rasheed, a fellow of the British Academy and a visiting professor at LSE’s Middle East Centre, explains that Riyad’s “determination to normalise relations with Israel springs out of domestic interest.”
She writes: “Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was alarmed by Trump’s outrageous ‘Riviera plan’ to reconstruct Gaza following eviction of its people to neighbouring countries. Alongside Arab leaders, he hopes to propose an alternative plan with the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem its capital at its core. The crown prince has insisted that there will be no normalisation of Israel without a Palestinian state.
“In the short term, he may succeed in preventing the eviction of Palestinians from Gaza and their proposed resettlement in Egypt, Jordan, and even Saudi Arabia. The summit promises to raise enough funds for reconstruction while leaving Palestinians in temporary shelters on their own land.
“The urgent and more challenging item of the summit’s agenda will be finding an alternative power to replace Hamas as the government of Gaza. Prince Mohammed is a sworn enemy of several Islamist movements, but his disdain for Hamas is more profound. He considers it responsible for derailing his plan to complete normalisation with Israel after 7 October 2023.
“The crown prince’s determination to normalise relations with Israel springs out of domestic interest. Saudi Arabia would like to see the transfer of Israeli technology, military equipment, intelligence and develop closer trade relations. More importantly, he hopes such a move would lead to closer security ties with the United States.”
Read the piece in full:
Updated
An 18-year-old ethnic Chechen has been arrested on suspicion of planning an attack on the Israeli Embassy in Berlin, German newspaper Bild reports.
German police confirmed the Russian national was detained on Thursday and placed in investigative custody on Friday, and that he was under investigation for planning an attack, according to Reuters.
They declined to comment further on the background and motive.
The Israeli Embassy could not be reached for comment outside of business hours, while state prosecutors and the Russian embassy did not immediately respond to written requests for comment.
Bild said the investigation had been the result of a tip-off from a foreign intelligence agency. It said the suspect had been trying to leave the country via Berlin’s BER airport when he was detained.
Israel demand return of Shiri Bibas’s body as Hamas claims it is mixed with other remains – video
Reuters has some further details about the meeting that took place between Arab and Gulf states in Saudi Arabia.
It was attended by Jordan’s King Abdullah and Crown Prince Hussein; Qatar’s Emir sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani; UAE president sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and his national security adviser; Kuwait’s Emir sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Sabah, and Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa.
Riyadh made no official mention of the talks, but sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters that they tackled a mainly Egyptian proposal that could include up to $20bn in funding over three years from wealthy Gulf and Arab states.
Last week, the Guardian reported that a proposal being drawn up by Cairo would formally exclude Hamas from governance of Gaza and control of its reconstruction.
Major US allies Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which is one of few Arab states to have normalised ties with Israel, have ruled out Donald Trump’s plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza.
They have emphasised that any peace deal should envisage a Palestinian state coexisting with Israel.
Updated
Irish premier Micheál Martin has accused Sinn Féin of “engaging in politics” over its decision not to travel to Washington DC in protest of Donald Trump’s position on Gaza, PA reports.
Martin, who intends and expects to Trump at the White House for an event around St Patrick’s Day, said he had a “responsibility to the country” to attend.
He said there was a need to continue engagement with the US administration to protect jobs in Ireland as well as trade between the two countries:
“It is very important because, first of all, the economic relationship between Europe and US and between Ireland and the US is an extremely important one, very robust one.”
The taoiseach said it was also important to keep engagement with the US to offer Ireland’s perspective on the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
We need a consolidation of the ceasefire, we need a massive surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and we need to create a political pathway to a two-state solution.
Earlier, Sinn Féin’s leaders announced they were boycotting the visit in “a principled stance against the threat of mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from Gaza”.
Updated
Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has left Saudi Arabia after joining an informal meeting on the Israel-Palestinian conflict with Gulf Arab states and Jordan, the presidency says in a statement.
The participating countries were expected to discuss alternatives to Donald Trump’s plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza and resettle most of them in Jordan and Egypt.
Earlier this month, Trump suggested Israel would turn Gaza over to the US for redevelopment into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
Last week, the Guardian reported that Egypt was drawing up a plan under which Hamas would be formally excluded from governance of Gaza and control of its reconstruction.
Updated
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum says it is “shaken” by the army’s revelation that Palestinian terrorists murdered the two Bibas boys with their “bare hands”.
“We are shaken to the core by the horrifying findings confirming the cruel and brutal murder of Ariel and Kfir Bibas – just innocent infants – at the hands of Hamas,” the group says in a statement, describing their deaths as “barbaric”.
Updated
As global attention remains focused on the hostage-prisoner swaps between Hamas and Israel, another ceasefire in the region hangs in the balance.
The 14-month war between Israel and Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim militia which has been the most dominant political faction in Lebanon for the past two decades, was paused by a US-brokered ceasefire in late November. The agreement also paved the way to end years of political deadlock in Beirut. Lebanon has formed a new government, and finally has leaders chosen for their promises to carry out reforms, rather than their sectarian affiliations – but the future of the ceasefire deal has left them facing an immediate crisis.
The original 60-day ceasefire was intended to give the two sides time to negotiate a longer truce. Under the deal, Israeli was supposed to fully withdraw its troops from parts of southern Lebanon it had invaded in October, while Hezbollah agreed to move its fighters and weapons north of the Litani river, about 16 miles (25 km) from the Israel-Lebanon border. The Israeli and Hezbollah withdrawals would allow the Lebanese army to move into southern Lebanon…
An Australian member of Islamic State who was wounded in the extremist group’s final battle and whose fate was not publicly known has been discovered alive and in custody in a prison in north-eastern Syria.
Mustafa Hajj-Obeid, 41, who is one of a cohort of accused IS members whose Australian citizenship was stripped and then restored in 2022 after a legal challenge, has been reported as missing for the past six years since the military defeat of IS.
He was encountered by the Guardian – with his head shaved and wearing a brown jumpsuit – by chance during a rare tour of Panorama prison, a detention centre for accused IS members run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Good afternoon, here’s a summary of today’s stories from Israel, Gaza and around the Middle East...
Israel claims Hamas murdered babies Ariel and Kfir Bibas with their “bare hands” The IDF says Hamas terrorists murdered children Ariel and Kfir Bibas “with their bare hands” weeks after their kidnapping on 7 October, 2023, reports The Times of Israel. “We can confirm that baby Kfir Bibas, just 10 months old, and his older brother Ariel, aged four, were both brutally murdered by terrorists while being held hostage in Gaza no later than November 2023. These two innocent children were taken hostage alive, along with their mother, Shiri, from their home on October 7, 2023,” IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has accused Hamas of a “very serious violation” of the terms of the hostage handover, saying the body of Shiri Bibas was not among the bodies received on Thursday. It said in a statement: “During the identification process, it was found that the additional body received was not that of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other abductee.” The bodies of her children, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, who were four years and nine months old respectively, had been identified, the IDF said.
Benjamin Netanyahu says he has ordered the Israeli military to carry out an intensive operation against what he called “centres of terrorism” in the West Bank. The Israeli prime minister also said on social media that he had ordered Shin Bet and police to increase “preventative” measures against attacks on Israeli cities.
Netanyahu, has condemned Hamas after the Israeli military said one of the bodies released by the militant group did not belong to Shiri Bibas or any of the captives held in Gaza, accusing it of violating the ceasefire.The cruelty of the Hamas monsters knows no bounds,” he said in video statement. Netanyahu added that his government will “ensure Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and evil violation of the agreement”.
Over half a million children left without education across Gaza and the West Bank.The International Rescue Committee (IRC) warns that vital aid for children in in the West Bank is being scuppered by increasing violence in the region.
Leader of Sinn Fein will boycott St. Patrick’s day events in US over Gaza. Mary Lou McDonald, president of Sinn Fein and First Minister Michelle O’Neill, say they will not attend the celebrations after Trump’s call to exile Palestinians from Gaza.
Israel’s Bibas family accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Friday of failing to protect their loved ones during Hamas’s 2023 attack and of failing to bring them home. “There is no forgiveness for abandoning them on October 7, and no forgiveness for abandoning them in captivity. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, we did not receive an apology from you in this painful moment,” Ofri Bibas said in a statement.
Updated
Israel claims Hamas murdered babies Ariel and Kfir Bibas with their 'bare hands'
The IDF says Hamas terrorists murdered children Ariel and Kfir Bibas “with their bare hands” weeks after their kidnapping on 7 October 2023.
“We can confirm that baby Kfir Bibas, just 10 months old, and his older brother Ariel, aged four, were both brutally murdered by terrorists while being held hostage in Gaza no later than November 2023. These two innocent children were taken hostage alive, along with their mother, Shiri, from their home on 7 October 2023,” IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said.
Hamas insist that the Bibas boys and their mother, Shiri, were killed by an Israeli airstrike. However, Hadari says those claims are lies, that Ariel and Kfir Bibas were “murdered in cold blood”.
Hagari adds:
The terrorists did not shoot the two young boys – they killed them with their bare hands. Afterwards, they committed horrific acts to cover up these atrocities. This assessment is based on forensic findings and intelligence that supports these conclusions. We have shared this intelligence and the forensic findings with our partners around the world so they can verify it.
The entire world must know exactly how the Hamas terrorist organization operates. Ariel and Kfir were murdered, and then yesterday, their bodies were returned in a cynical and cruel ceremony in Gaza. Shiri Bibas, who was meant to be returned with her children to Israel as part of the agreement, was not returned by Hamas. Hamas lied and violated the agreement.
The body that Hamas falsely claimed was Shiri’s was not hers, nor was it any other hostage. Instead, Hamas sent over the body of an unidentified woman. This is yet more evidence of Hamas’s barbaric cruelty.”
Hagari says Israel demands that Shiri Bibas be returned to Israel swiftly.
It is worth noting that Israel’s claims have yet to be verified by independent sources.
Updated
Bibas family says Netanyahu abandoned their loved ones
Israel’s Bibas family accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Friday of failing to protect their loved ones during Hamas’s 2023 attack and of failing to bring them home.
“There is no forgiveness for abandoning them on October 7, and no forgiveness for abandoning them in captivity. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, we did not receive an apology from you in this painful moment,” Ofri Bibas said in a statement.
She said the family was still waiting to know the “fate” of her sister-in-law Shiri Bibas and was “not seeking revenge right now”.
Israel to release 602 prisoners in Gaza swap on Saturday, reports AFP.
Israel will free 602 prisoners and detainees from jails on Saturday as part of a hostage-prisoner swap with Hamas under an ongoing Gaza ceasefire deal, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group.
Among those released, 445 are individuals from Gaza who were arrested after Hamas’ 7 October attack that sparked the latest conflict. Sixty are serving long sentences, 50 are serving life sentences, and 47 were re-arrested after a 2011 prisoner exchange, Amani Sarahneh, a spokesperson for the NGO, told AFP.
Updated
Hamas says it is investigating a possible error in identifying human remains, Reuters reports, after Israeli specialists accused it of violating the ceasefire by failing to return the body of Shiri Bibas.
Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, says “unfortunate mistakes” could have occurred, especially as Israeli bombing had mingled the bodies of Israeli hostages and Palestinians, thousands of whom were still buried in the rubble.
“We confirm that it is not in our values or our interest to keep any bodies or not to abide by the covenants and agreements that we sign,” the statement adds.
Updated
Argentina announced two days of national mourning on Thursday after the bodies of two Israeli Argentine children who had been taken hostage by Hamas were handed over by the group, reports AFP.
Argentina’s president Javier Milei will call for two days of national mourning, his office said in an official statement.
Milei also extended his “condolences to the family, especially to Yarden Bibas, the children’s father, who after suffering the torment of being kidnapped for 484 days is now facing his worst nightmare”, the statement added.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a body that Hamas militants released during the handover of remains of Israeli hostages is that of a woman from Gaza instead of that of Shiri Bibas, the mother of two young boys whose bodies were returned on Thursday.
AP reports that, in a statement released on Friday, Netanyahu criticised the handover of the wrong remains as a “cruel and malicious violation” of the ceasefire agreement, which has halted fighting in the Gaza Strip, and said Hamas would “pay the full price” for the action.
Hamas militants turned over four bodies on Thursday under the tenuous ceasefire, which has paused over 15 months of war. Israeli confirmed one body was that of Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was abducted during the Hamas attack on Israel that started the war on 7 October 2023.
The remains of Shiri Bibas’ two young sons, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, were positively identified, the Israel Defense Forces said, but added the fourth body was not that of their mother, nor of any other hostage.
“We will work with determination to bring Shiri home together with all our hostages – both living and dead – and ensure that Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and malicious violation of the agreement,” Netanyahu said.
“The sacred memory of Oded Lifshitz and Ariel and Kfir Bibas will be forever enshrined in the heart of the nation. May God avenge their blood. And so we will avenge,” he added.
AFP reports that Hamas has rejected Netanyahu’s “threats” to make the group pay after he accused it of violating the ceasefire by not returning the hostage Shiri Bibas.
Hamas said in a statement:
We reject the threats issued by Benjamin Netanyahu as part of his attempts to improve his image.
The movement affirmed its “seriousness and full commitment” to its responsibilities under the ceasefire, and said it had “no interest in failing to comply or holding on to any bodies”.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on the world to condemn what he described as the “horrific murders” of the two Bibas children, whose bodies Hamas handed over as part of a Gaza ceasefire deal.
“The entire civilised world should condemn these horrific murders,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “Who kidnaps a little boy and a baby and murders them? Monsters. That’s who … I vow that I will not rest until the savages who executed our hostages are brought to justice”.
Hamas, however, says the children – along with their mother – were killed by an Israeli airstrike on Gaza.
Updated
A BBC documentary about Gaza has been pulled from BBC iPlayer while the corporation conducts “further due diligence”, following the broadcaster admitting a child featured was the son of a man who has worked as Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture, PA reports.
A statement from the BBC said: “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone features important stories we think should be told, those of the experiences of children in Gaza.
“There have been continuing questions raised about the programme and in the light of these, we are conducting further due diligence with the production company. The programme will not be available on iPlayer while this is taking place.”
Leader of Sinn Fein will boycott St. Patrick’s day events in US over Gaza
Mary Lou McDonald, president of Sinn Fein and First Minister Michelle O’Neill, say they will not attend the celebrations after Trump’s call to exile Palestinians from Gaza.
Senior Sinn Fein figures normally travel to America every year for St Patrick’s Day events.
McDonald said:
I’ve thought deeply about this issue in recent days, and listened to many voices inside and outside of Sinn Fein. I’ve made the decision not to attend the event in the White House this year as a principled stance against the call for the mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from Gaza, something which I believe demands serious dissent and objection.
I followed with growing concern what’s happening on the ground in Gaza and the West Bank, and like many other Irish people, have listened in horror to calls from the president of the United States for the mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from their homes and the permanent seizure of Palestinian lands.
There is also an onus on us to speak honestly and to act when we believe a US administration is wrong, catastrophically so in the case of Palestine.
O’Neill said Trump’s comments on “forced expulsion of the Palestinian people of Gaza cannot be ignored”.
On X, she said that she will “continue to engage with senior figures in the US for peace and economic growth”.
“In the future, when our children and grandchildren ask us what we did while the Palestinian people endured unimaginable suffering, I will say I stood firmly on the side of humanity,” she added.
Palestinian Authority Minister of Health, Majed Abu Ramadan, announced on Friday that the third rollout of the polio vaccination campaign in Gaza will begin on Saturday, reports the Wafa news agency.
In a statement, Minister Abu Ramadan emphasized the Ministry of Health’s role in leading a national health initiative aimed at protecting Palestinian children from the spread of polio.
“The Palestinian Ministry of Health is leading this national community health campaign, driven by our responsibility to protect our children from the threat of polio.”
After coming the closest yet to falling apart, the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel is back on its fragile track. Just days ago, an escalating dispute threatened the deal after both sides expressed frustration about the other’s fulfilment of their respective obligations. Donald Trump’s recent proposal to resettle Gaza’s population of two million Palestinians also rattled the truce.
The turbulences of the month-old ceasefire expose a deeper political uncertainty: after 15 months of fighting, no clear vision exists for what comes next. Who should govern and rebuild Gaza? What will its future relationship with Israel be?
To navigate these questions, listening to ordinary people’s perspectives is crucial. As behavioural scientists based at the London School of Economics, Jeremy Ginges and I conducted a large-scale study of how Palestinians in Gaza and Israelis view each other, and the future…
Hamas asks Israel to return body of Gazan woman given Thursday
Israel’s claim that the body returned to them yesterday was that of an unidentified Gazan woman, not Shiri Bibas a mother of two who was taken hostage on 7 October, 2023.
In a statement, Hamas says it will “examine these allegations very seriously”.
Hamas official Ismail al-Thawabteh claims that Shiri’s body “was turned into pieces after apparently being mixed with other bodies under the rubble”.
Hamas has claimed for the past year that Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, were killed in an Israeli airstrike; Israel said overnight that they were murdered in captivity.
“We also point out the possibility of an error or overlap regarding the bodies, which may have resulted from the occupation targeting and bombing the place where the family was with other Palestinians,” Hamas said in a statement published on Telegram.
The group added it “will announce the results transparently” and they have no interest in “keeping any bodies” of the captives.
Updated
Hamas announces names of six hostages due to be released tomorrow
Hamas officially announces that it will be releasing hostages Tal Shoham, Omer Shem-Tov, Eliya Cohen, Omer Wenkert, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed tomorrow.
Al-Sayed and Mengistu have been captive in Gaza for over a decade. The others were abducted on October 7, 2023.
Updated
Over half a million children left without education across Gaza and the West Bank
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) warns that vital aid for children in in the West Bank is being scuppered by increasing violence in the region.
Over 200 children have died in the West Bank since the Gaza ceasefire came into effect. The number of child deaths is the highest recorded in years, said the IRC. “This surge in violence is causing profound trauma and preventing IRC and partners from responding to meet mounting needs in Jenin, one of the worst-hit areas,” it said in a statement.
The IRC has partnered with the Palestinian organisation Teacher Creativity Center (TCC) to support children affected by the ongoing violence in the region. “However, ongoing military operations, including airstrikes, have destroyed infrastructure and made it nearly impossible to safely deliver these vital services,” the statement added.
The organisation says despite the ceasefire, 658,000 school-aged children in Gaza and across the West Bank remain without formal education, with almost 90% of schools destroyed, damaged, or being used as shelters.
Zoe Daniels, the IRC’s Country Director in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), said: “While there’s a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, children in the West Bank are facing increasing levels of violence, displacement, and deep trauma. The very places meant to protect and support them—schools, safe spaces, essential services—are disappearing before their eyes.”
Daniels added that education is a universal right and must continue even during conflict. “Civilians, schools, and critical infrastructure must never be targets. The international community must step up, hold those responsible accountable, and take urgent action to prevent more harm.”
Red Cross "unsatisfied" by Hamas' handling of hostage releases
The Red Cross is “concerned and unsatisfied” by the way Hamas hostage release operations have taken place, it told Reuters on Friday after the Israeli military said one of the returned bodies did not belong to any of the hostages held in Gaza.
Two of the four bodies handed over on Thursday were identified as infant Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother Ariel, while a third body that was supposed to be their mother, Shiri, was found not to match with any hostage and remained unidentified, the military said.
“The ICRC does not participate in sorting, screening, or examining the deceased - this is the responsibility of the parties to the conflict”, it said in a statement on Friday, while expressing concern that the releases had not been conducted privately and in a dignified manner.
One of the four bodies returned by Hamas to Israel on Thursday is not that of the hostage Shiri Bibas, Israel’s military has said, calling it a “violation of utmost severity” of a ceasefire deal that was already precarious.
The Israeli military confirmed that two of the bodies belonged to Bibas’s children, Ariel and Kfir, in the early hours of Friday. However, it added: “During the identification process, it was determined that the additional body received is not that of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other hostage. This is an anonymous, unidentified body”…
Hamas have reiterated their claim that the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two children were killed by an Israeli airstrike, following Israel’s claim that the body returned to them yesterday was that of an unidentified Gazan woman, not Bibas.
In a statement, Hamas says it will “examine these allegations very seriously.”
Hamas official Ismail al-Thawabteh claims that Shiri’s body “was turned into pieces after apparently being mixed with other bodies under the rubble.”
Hamas has claimed for the past year that Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, were killed in an Israeli airstrike; Israel said overnight that they were murdered in captivity.
Israel claims that authorities at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute were able to definitively determine the body did not belong to Bibas, adding the body was dressed in clothing and was examined several times by the institute. Israel claim the body’s DNA was tested against that of Shiri and all other female hostages still held by Hamas, and none of them matched.
Updated
Netanyahu says Hamas will pay for not returning Shiri Bibas – video
Arab leaders have gathered in Saudi Arabia to discuss a plan for rebuilding Gaza amid the increasingly precarious ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.
An alternative plan to President Donald Trump’s proposal for US control of the territory and the expulsion of Palestinians will be key on the agenda. Unsurprisingly, Trump’s half-baked ideas for the region are universally opposed by Arab nations, but discord remains over who should be in charge of Gaza and oversee its reconstruction.
“We’re at a very important historic juncture in the Arab-Israeli or Israeli-Palestinian conflict... where potentially the United States under Trump could create new facts on the ground that are irreversible,” Andreas Krieg, a King’s College London expert, told the AFP.
Trump triggered global outrage when he proposed the United States “take over the Gaza Strip” and relocate its more than two million residents to Egypt and Jordan.
Israel has rendered Gaza virtually unlivable after 15 months of bombarding the region, with the United Nations estimating that rebuilding would cost in excess of £40 billion.
Meanwhile, Hamas has called on the Arab league to support them to remain in control of Gaza ahead of the diplomatic summit in Riyadh, Al Jazeera reports.
The assistant secretary-general of the Arab League, Hossam Zaki, reportedly suggested that Hamas’ relinquishing of power in Gaza is in the interests of the Palestinian people.
In a statement on Friday, Hamas said:
We have shown the utmost flexibility in formulating political and administrative approaches to managing the Gaza Strip during the various dialogues, especially with our brothers in Egypt, including agreeing to form a national consensus government.”
We affirm that Hamas will continue to place the supreme interest of the Palestinian people at the heart of all its decisions related to the situation in the Gaza Strip after the war, within the framework of national consensus, and away from any interference by the occupation or the United States.
We also call on the Arab League to support this position and not to allow the passage of any projects that would threaten the Arab national security system.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says Israel should not remain silent over the “severe violation” carried out by the Palestinian group.
Smotrich was reacting to the claim made by the Israeli military that one of the four bodies handed over by Hamas on Thursday was an unidentified woman and not Shiri Bibas as they claimed.
“The severe violation by Hamas and the ongoing abuse cannot be faced with silence. And neither can the certain knowledge that they brutally murdered the young Ariel and Kfir in captivity,” he added, referring to Bibas’s two children whose bodies were returned yesterday.
Smotrich said: “The only solution is the destruction of Hamas, and it must not be delayed.”
Hamas says Shiri Bibas remains appear to have been mixed with other remains after airstrike
Hamas says the remains of Shiri Bibas appear to have been mixed with other human remains in rubble after an Israeli airstrike, the Reuters news agency reports.
The statement comes after Israel said none of the four bodies returned by Hamas on Thursday is that of the hostage Shiri Bibas.
The IDF said it was a “violation of utmost severity” of a ceasefire deal that was already precarious.
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The pain and damage wreaked in the last 16 months will reverberate through families, communities and the Middle East for decades to come. On Thursday, the bodies of two young children and their mother, and that of an 83-year-old peace activist, were returned to Israel by Hamas. They were kidnapped in the 7 October 2023 raid in which the militants killed around 1,200 Israelis and others. Around 48,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its war in response.
It was always feared that the ceasefire deal, which has brought desperately needed respite for Palestinians in Gaza and the return of Israeli and foreign hostages, would be fleeting. The six-week opening stage is due to expire on 1 March. The talks on the more complicated second stage have yet to begin, more than a fortnight after they were due…
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Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, expressed outrage this morning at Hamas’s “horrific violation” after the Israeli military said the jihadist group handed over the body of an unidentified Gazan woman while claiming it was Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas.
“The bodies of Ariel and Kfir, so pure and innocent, were identified, while their beloved mother, Shiri, remains in captivity,” says Herzog in a statement. “This is a shocking and horrific violation of the ceasefire agreement, another cruel act by the terrorists of Hamas, who continue to show utter disregard for humanity.”
Herzog says Israel is “anxiously await[ing] the expected release of six more hostages this weekend,” and says the country must “do everything in our power to bring every one of our kidnapped sisters and brothers home. All of them. Until the very last one.”
Here’s an opinion piece on today’s diplomatic summit in Riyadh, which will discuss plans for Gaza’s future, penned by Madawi al-Rasheed, a fellow of the British Academy and a visiting professor at the Middle East Centre, London School of Economics.
Extract: Saudi Arabia has suddenly experienced a diplomatic awakening after lukewarm engagement with the conflict in Gaza. Today, leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will gather in Riyadh to discuss Donald Trump’s proposal for a US takeover of Gaza. (Keen to be viewed as a global deal maker, Saudi Arabia will also be hosting negotiations over Ukraine this week.)
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was alarmed by Trump’s outrageous “Riviera plan” to reconstruct Gaza following eviction of its people to neighbouring countries. Alongside Arab leaders, he hopes to propose an alternative plan with the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem its capital at its core. The crown prince has insisted that there will be no normalisation of Israel without a Palestinian state…
The Wafa news agency reports that Israeli forces continued their assault on Tulkarm, a Palestinian city in the West Bank, and its refugee camp overnight, inflicting extensive destruction to homes and civilian properties.
Entire neighbourhoods are reportedly in ruins, with small businesses and residential properties bearing the brunt of the damage, including the Nour Shams Association for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled, which provides vital humanitarian and social programs for people with disabilities in the camp and the city.
Entire homes were also bulldozed in an apparent effort to construct a road in the refugee camp.
In the eastern district of Tulkarm city, Israeli forces vandalised and occupied residential buildings, converting them into military outposts.
Thirty metres under the city of Kobani, north-east Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) kept a watchful eye on the Turkish border. A plasma screen TV displayed 16 surveillance feeds to officers in a room in one of the Kurdish-led militia’s tunnels, where Kalashnikovs and SDF flags adorned the walls.
The soldiers dare not emerge from the tunnels, fearful of being picked off by the Turkish drones buzzing overhead. They move between facilities in the subterranean network on foot, emerging from entrances hidden in nondescript buildings.
“Most of our forces are currently concentrated in the tunnels. When Turkey started threatening us, we started going underground,” Zinarin Kobane, the commander of the SDF’s Euphrates region, said during a rare tour of the SDF’s tunnel network…
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Israel accuses Hamas of 'violation of utmost severity'
One of the four bodies returned by Hamas to Israel on Thursday is not that of Shiri Bibas, Israel’s military has said, calling it a “violation of utmost severity” of a ceasefire deal that was already precarious.
The Israeli military confirmed that two of the bodies belonged to Bibas’ children, Ariel and Kfir, in the early hours of Friday. However, it added “During the identification process, it was determined that the additional body received is not that of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other hostage. This is an anonymous, unidentified body”…
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Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has condemned Hamas after the Israeli military said one of the bodies released by the militant group did not belong to Shiri Bibas or any of the captives held in Gaza, accusing it of violating the ceasefire.
“The cruelty of the Hamas monsters knows no bounds,” he said in video statement.
Netanyahu added that his government will “ensure Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and evil violation of the agreement”.
“We will work with determination to bring Shiri home together with all our hostages — both living and dead — and ensure that Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and malicious violation of the agreement,” Netanyahu said.
“The sacred memory of Oded Lifshitz and Ariel and Kfir Bibas will be forever enshrined in the heart of the nation. May God avenge their blood. And so we will avenge,” he added.
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Summary
We’re pausing our live coverage of the Middle East crisis now – it’s approaching 4.30am in Tel Aviv and Gaza City. You can read all the key developments in our latest full report. Here’s where things stand:
One of the four bodies Hamas handed over on Thursday is not that of Shiri Bibas, the Israeli military has said, calling it a “violation of utmost severity” of a ceasefire deal that is already fragile.
The military confirmed on Friday that two of the bodies returned to Israel belonged to Bibas’ children, Ariel and Kfir, but said that during the identification process it was determined the additional body received was not Shiri Bibas and no match was found for any other hostage. “This is an anonymous, unidentified body,” the Israel Defense Forces said. “We demand that Hamas return Shiri home along with all our hostages.” There was no immediate response from Hamas.
Bibas and her children became a symbol of the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023. The militant group has said they were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the early days of the war. However, the IDF said on Friday that they had been murdered in Gaza, posting on X: “According to the assessment of professional officials, based on the intelligence available to us and forensic findings from the identification process, Ariel and Kfir Bibas were brutally murdered by terrorists in captivity in November 2023.”
The IDF’s statement came hours after Israeli prime Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to conduct an “intense operation” against “terror hubs” in the occupied West Bank after a series of explosions on three parked buses in Bat Yam, a city outside Tel Aviv, that authorities said was a suspected terrorist attack. No injuries were reported. The IDF said it had been decided to reinforce Israeli troops with three battalions.
Explosives were found on two other buses but did not detonate, Israeli police said. The five bombs were identical and equipped with timers, and bomb squads were defusing the unexploded bombs, they said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosions
Thursday’s handover of bodies is to be followed by the return of six living hostages on Saturday, in exchange for hundreds more Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
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Here’s more on Israeli hostage Oded Lifshitz, whose body was returned to Israel on Thursday.
Agence France-Presse reports the veteran journalist was a long-time defender of Palestinian rights and a founder of the Nir Oz kibbutz where he lived and was abducted, aged 83, during Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack, alongside his wife Yocheved Lifshitz, 85. She was released 16 days later for what Hamas called “humanitarian reasons”.
Interviewed on Israel’s Kan public broadcaster on Wednesday, she said her husband had “fought for the Palestinians his whole life – they betrayed him and took him to hell”.
In a long career with the now defunct, left-leaning newspaper Al-Hamishmar, Oded Lifshitz defended Palestinian rights and advocated for peace. In 1972, he defended Bedouins who were expelled from the Sinai Peninsula by occupying Israeli authorities. A decade later, he was one of the first journalists to report on the Sabra and Shatila massacres in which Israeli-backed Christian militias killed between 800 and 2,000 Palestinians in Beirut refugee camps.
More recently, Lifshitz – an Arabic speaker – had been actively involved for years with Road to Recovery, an organisation which helps Palestinians receive medical treatment in Israel.
The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, who had met with his daughter, said he was “deeply saddened” to hear of Lifshitz’s death, saying in a statement:
It is my hope that the peace he worked to see in the region through his charity work and activism will be achieved.
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The Israeli military’s accusation that Hamas has breached the ceasefire with a “violation of utmost severity” came just hours after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a further crackdown on the occupied West Bank over a series of bus explosions.
Full more on that and all the latest key developments, see our new full report here:
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Oded Lifshitz's body formally identified, says family
The family of Oded Lifshitz have said in a statement that his body has been formally identified, Reuters reports.
His body was released by Hamas in Gaza on Thursday along with three others under the ceasefire deal reached last month.
Lifshitz, an 85-year-old peace activist and retired journalist, had not previously been confirmed as dead. He had been abducted by militants and brought to Gaza on 7 October 2023. Hamas released his wife, Yocheved Lifshitz, in November 2023.
The Israeli military said on Friday that two of the four bodies released were identified as infant Kfir and his brother Ariel Bibas while a third body that was supposed to be their mother, Shiri, was found not to match with any hostage and remained unidentified, the military said. It accused the militant group of violating the already fragile ceasefire.
There was no immediate response from Hamas.
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The Israeli military says it is to bolster its troops in the West Bank with three battalions and is ready to “expand offensive activities”.
An Israel Defense Forces post on X, translated from the Hebrew, said:
According to the situation assessment, it was decided to reinforce with three battalions in the Central Command sector.
The IDF continues to conduct ongoing situation assessments and is prepared to expand offensive activities. The operation to thwart terrorism in northern Samaria continues constantly.
The IDF will continue to act defensively and offensively to ensure the security of Israeli civilians.
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Netanyahu orders 'intensive' military operation in West Bank
Benjamin Netanyahu says he has ordered the Israeli military to carry out an intensive operation against what he called “centres of terrorism” in the West Bank.
The Israeli prime minister also said on social media that he had ordered Shin Bet and police to increase “preventative” measures against attacks on Israeli cities.
The move comes after a series of blasts on three parked buses on Thursday which Israeli authorities said was a suspected terrorist attack. No injuries were reported.
A post from Netanyahu’s prime ministerial account on X said today:
The Prime Minister has ordered the IDF to carry out an intensive operation against centers of terrorism in Judea and Samaria. The Prime Minister also ordered the Israel Police and the ISA [Israeli security agency] to increase preventative activity against additional attacks in Israeli cities.
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The Israeli military has said the two Bibas boys were “murdered by terrorists” in Gaza.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said earlier that Ariel and Kfir Bibas had been identified after their bodies were released by Hamas on Thursday under the current ceasefire agreement.
The boys had been aged four years and nine months old respectively when they were abducted by Hamas.
The militant group has claimed the two children were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
The IDF posted on X today:
According to the assessment of professional officials, based on the intelligence available to us and forensic findings from the identification process, Ariel and Kfir Bibas were brutally murdered by terrorists in captivity in November 2023.
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Opening summary
Welcome to our live coverage of the Middle East crisis.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has accused Hamas of a “very serious violation” of the terms of the hostage handover, saying the body of Shiri Bibas was not among the bodies received on Thursday.
It said in a statement: “During the identification process, it was found that the additional body received was not that of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other abductee.” The bodies of her children, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, who were four years and nine months old respectively, had been identified, the IDF said.
The military has demanded that the body of Shiri Bibas be returned home along with all other hostages. It did not specify a timeframe.
Bibas and her children – who Hamas claims were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the early days of the war – became an indelible symbol of the attack of 7 October 2023. Shiri Bibas’s parents were killed in the Hamas offensive, and her husband, Yarden, was taken captive and released earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said he had ordered the military to step up its offensives across the occupied West Bank after a series of bomb blasts involving buses rocked central Israel on Thursday.
“In light of the serious attempted attacks in the Gush Dan [central] area by Palestinian terrorist organisations against the civilian population in Israel, I have instructed the IDF to intensify operations to thwart terrorism in the Tulkarem refugee camp and in all the refugee camps in Judea and Samaria” Katz said in a statement, using the biblical term for the West Bank. There were no immediate reports of injuries in the blasts.
More details soon.
