“The return to war is the return of your prisoners in coffins,” said a large banner that presided over the delivery this Thursday by Hamas of the first four bodies of hostages, within the frame fire. The Palestinian and Israel groups agreed to release 33 hostages in exchange for a cessation of hostilities and the release of about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, within six weeks. Of those 33, eight are dead.
The weekend is scheduled a new release of six live hostages and next Thursday the operation will be repeated with four other dead. This will end the first phase of the agreement. March 1 is the last day of that phase of high fire and negotiations to extend it have not progressed. The conversations about the second phase should have started in early February, but the mediators have failed to make Hamas and Israel feel at the table.
Among the bodies delivered this Thursday are Shiri Silberman Bibas, his two children of five and two years, and Oded Lifshitz, according to Hamas. The bodies have been delivered to the Red Cross, which on Wednesday had requested that the exchange respect the dignity of the deceased. The Israeli authorities had asked the media not to broadcast the delivery, which in the Gazatí town of Jan Yunis have followed dozens of people.
The bodies have been taken to the National Center for Forensic Medicine, located in Tel Aviv, and has only been identified, for now, that of Oded Lifshitz, as reported by the family. “503 days of agony and uncertainty have ended. We have waited and prayed for the end to be different, ”he said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Ministry of Health has asked the public “to refrain from spreading unfounded rumors and trusts only the official ads to obtain information” about the deceased, until their identity is proven.
The Red Cross had asked that “all liberations are carried out in private and in a dignified way, included when they affect deceased.” However, Hamas has shown the coffins in a stage with a banner with images of the deceased and with a message that accused Israel of the death of the hostages in their bombings on the strip. On the stage there were also several rockets with the label: “US bombs.”
The Army has celebrated a ceremony in the strip when it received the bodies from the Red Cross, along with family members. Then, the coffins wrapped in Israeli flags were driven in several white vans to Tel Aviv, a route that hundreds of people bet on the margins of the roads carrying flags of the Jewish country in silence.
“They were not just names: they were loved people, with families who appreciated them, with dreams and futures that had been stolen. We cry not only for them, but also for the other beautiful lost lives, including another four dead hostages that will be returned next week, ”said the forum of hostage and missing families.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, He said Thursday that everyone in Israel are “united in unbearable pain.” “The voice of the blood of our loved ones cry out from Earth. It forces us to reach an agreement with the vile murderers, and we will make them account, ”he has promised in a video.
All hostages were kidnapped on October 7, 2023, during Hamas assault in southern Israel. Then, Israel launched a war of punishment against Gaza, which has left more than 48,000 dead, although several scientific studies raise that figure to tens of thousands more.
Once the first phase of the fire ends and Hamas completes the release of the 33 hostages, there will still be another 65. Hamas has offered its release in a single exchange if Israel guarantees the cessation of hostilities indefinitely and the withdrawal of its Strip troops.
#Hamas #delivers #host #bodies #framework #Alto #Fuego
