Shiri Bibas and her two children, Kfir and Ariel, were reportedly killed in an air strike in November 2023, according to Hamas. Yarden Bibas, Shiri‘s husband, was released last month during phase one of the ceasefire deal.
The body of Oded Lifshitz was also released. Lifshitz was 83 when he was abducted from the Nir Oz settlement he established with his wife, Yocheved.
It is noteworthy that the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip entered into force on January 19, and since its entry, several civilians were killed and dozens of others injured in various parts of the Strip.
In his pre-recorded address at Hostages Square, Ben Ami thanked the protesters who have come out week after week to draw attention to the plight of the hostages and ensure that they remain in the public eye.
What keeps you going is that suddenly you see a nation fighting for you,” he said. “You have no idea, no idea how much power that gives to those left behind.”
Over the past 48 hours, hospitals in Gaza have received the bodies or remains of 25 victims after being pulled out from the rubble, the sources confirmed.
According to the same sources, the number of injuries has also climbed to 111,688. Meantime, many victims remain trapped under the rubble, with emergency and civil defense teams unable to reach them.
In accordance with the truce deal, the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, has now identified the three Israeli captives set for release on Saturday as Yair Horn, Sagui Dekel-Chen and Alexandre Sasha Troufanov.
In exchange, 369 Palestinians held in Israeli jails will be released.
Meanwhile, Israel has allowed the entry of some aid convoys, consisting mostly of humanitarian supplies.
According to Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Abu Azzoum, heavy machinery and mobile houses are still obstructed from entering into Gaza, and remain at the Egyptian side of the Rafah border.
Heavy equipment, caravans and bulldozers currently near the Rafah crossing will enter the Gaza Strip through Karem Abu Salem, passing through the Philadelphi Corrdidor, MEE‘s reporting has found.
Hamas says the group will continue “to implement the [Gaza ceasefire] agreement in accordance with what was signed, including the exchange of prisoners according to the specified timetable”.
Hamas said on Thursday it will continue implementing the Gaza ceasefire deal, including a hostage exchange within the agreed timeframe, reports Reuters.
„I don‘t have to threaten that. I do believe we‘re above that,“ Mr. Trump said. That contradicted his previous suggestion that holding back aid was a possibility.
There was something painful about watching Jordanian King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday, February 11, his eyes nervously twitching as he tried not to upset his host, Donald Trump. Journalists asked him, several times over: Was his country, Jordan, ready to receive a part of the Gazan population on its soil, as the American president wants to remove them from Palestinian territory?
The king refused to answer. In his impeccable English, he cautiously took refuge behind Egypt‘s broader international stature.
“I think we have to keep in mind that there is a plan from Egypt and the Arab countries,” Abdullah said when prompted to speak by the president.
“We‘re being invited by [Crown Prince] Mohammed bin Salman to discussions in Riyadh..“
His Majesty King Abdullah reiterated during talks with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday, that he will put Jordan’s interests above all else.
Speaking to journalists before bilateral talks with the US president, His Majesty stressed that achieving stability, peace and prosperity in the region is a collective responsibility.
The King said Egypt and Arab countries will present a plan on Gaza, noting that it is important to find a solution that takes everyone’s interests into consideration, including peoples in the region and especially the Jordanian people, according to a Royal Court statement.
“We must avoid at all costs the resumption of hostilities in Gaza that would lead to an immense tragedy,” said the UN chief, in a statement relayed to journalists by UN Geneva spokesperson Rolando Gomez.
“I appeal to Hamas to proceed with the planned liberation of hostages next Saturday. Both sides must fully abide by their commitments in the ceasefire agreement and resume serious negotiations in Doha for the second phase.”
The development comes amid reports that Hamas suspended the scheduled release of hostages from Gaza on Saturday, on the grounds that Palestinians continue to be killed in the war-torn enclave and that too little aid is entering the Strip.
The future of the cease-fire in Gaza, along with the territory’s long-term fate, hung in the balance on Tuesday as President Trump prepared to meet with King Abdullah II of Jordan …
When asked if he felt the ceasefire deal should be canceled, the president said that is „Israel’s decision.“
„If all the Gaza hostages aren‘t returned by Saturday at 12 p.m., I would say cancel the ceasefire,“ Trump said in the Oval Office. „Let all hell break out; Israel can override it.“
(February 10, 2025)
However, Abu Obaida, spokesman for Hamas‘s armed wing the Qassam Brigades, said it will be „postponed until further notice, pending the occupation‘s compliance and retroactive fulfullment of the past weeks‘ obligations“.
„We reaffirm our commitment to the terms of the agreement as long as the occupation adheres to them,“ he added.
Abu Obaida said the delay would continue until Israel halted its attacks on Palestinians returning to their homes in Gaza and allowed aid into the enclave at previously-agreed-to levels.
(February 9, 2025)
The families of hostages Matan Zangauker and Nimrod Cohen on Sunday petitioned the High Court demanding it order the government to publish the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal agreed with Hamas in its entirety.
The agreement has been published only in part.
(February 9, 2025)
Government delays Security Cabinet talks on Phase II of hostage deal despite public outrage; families urge swift action after freed hostages appeared gaunt and frail, underscoring dire state of 76 captives still held in Gaza
The freed Israelis – Eli Sharabi, 52, Or Levy, 34, and Ohad Ben Ami, 56 – were the latest to be released under the first stage of the ceasefire agreement.
They were handed over to members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) after being photographed on a stage in front of large crowds in central Gaza‘s Deir al-Balah.
(…)
Meanwhile, video footage showed a bus carrying Palestinian detainees from Israel‘s Ofer Prison arriving in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, on Saturday afternoon.
Torture was recorded in civilian and military detention facilities across Israel, resulting in the deaths of at least 60 Palestinians in Israeli custody in less than 10 months.
The systematic nature
Meanwhile, an investigation by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz has revealed that a quarter of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons have been infected with scabies in recent months.
The findings contained in the report, which cited prison officials, were the result of a petition filed by human rights organisations. of the abuse across all facilities left “no room to doubt an organised, declared policy of the Israeli prison authorities”.
The Rafah border crossing has opened for the first time in nearly nine months to allow sick and wounded Palestinian patients in Gaza to travel to Egypt for medical treatment.
A former Palestinian prisoner released by Israel is hugged by members of his family as he disembarks a Red Cross bus after arriving in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank on February 1, 2025
Three Israeli captives – Keith Siegel, Ofer Kalderon and Yarden Bibas – have been released in two separate locations in Gaza City and Khan Younis.
Ziad Abu Amr, one of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s longtime advisors, would become the de facto ruler of the Gaza Strip, heading the committee. He would be appointed deputy to Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Mustafa but endowed with massive new powers.
Abu Amr was born in the Gaza Strip in 1950. He could be palatable to the Trump administration because he is also a US citizen. He obtained his PhD from Georgetown University and served as deputy Palestinian prime minister from 2013 to 2024.
Keith Siegel: A 65-year-old US citizen from North Carolina, Siegel was taken from Kfar Aza kibbutz alongside his wife, Aviva, during the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023. She was released in November 2023.
Ofer Kalderon: A 54-year-old French-Israeli, Kalderon was taken from Nir Oz kibbutz along with his children, Erez and Sahar, who were freed during the last ceasefire.
Yarden Bibas: A 35-year-old Israeli-Argentine, Bibas was taken separately from his wife, Shiri, and their children, Ariel and Kfir, who were also taken from Nir Oz kibbutz. Hamas says Shiri and the boys died in captivity.
The Israeli government has explicitly forbade any celebrations surrounding the release.
This video has been verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking unit.
HAMAS has released the next batch of hostages after keeping them in captivity for a harrowing 482 days.
Hamas-led militants freed eight hostages on Thursday as part of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, but the chaotic handover of some of the captives, who were shuttled through a rowdy crowd of thousands by masked militants, drew an angry protest from Israel.
Israel later began releasing 110 Palestinian prisoners after the swap was initially put on hold by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who demanded that mediators assure the safe exit for hostages going forward. He said later that he had received that commitment
The U.S. official visited Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
Netanyahu has long eyed ties with Riyadh and is due to meet Trump in Washington on Feb. 4, when talks for the next phase of the three-stage Gaza ceasefire are meant to formally start.
According to Hebrew media reports, Witkoff reportedly visited the Netzarim Corridor inside the Gaza Strip with Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.
(…)
Israel has received a list of hostages who will be released on Thursday from Gaza, the Prime Minister‘s office said on Wednesday.
The office did not provide further details.
The implementation of Israel’s legislation on 30 January — curtailing the operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) — will undermine the ceasefire and sabotage Gaza’s recovery and political transition, a senior UN official told the Security Council today.
The Gaza Health Ministry announced that hospitals received 63 bodies in the past 24 hours, with 59 recovered from the rubble and eight people wounded.
Since Israel’s offensive began on 7 October 2023, the death toll has soared to 47,417, with at least 111,571 wounded.
Lazzarini told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that the ban would „heighten instability and deepen despair in the occupied Palestinian territory at a critical moment“.
“The relentless assault on UNRWA is harming the lives and future of Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territory,“ he said.
“It is eroding their trust in the international community, jeopardising any prospect for peace and security.”
Why it matters: This was the first meeting between a Trump administration official and a Palestinian official since November‘s election.
– The meeting between Witkoff and Hussein al-Sheikh took place amid efforts by the Trump administration to end the war in Gaza and push for a Saudi-Israeli peace deal that includes a path toward a Palestinian state.
He added that Palestine has been fought over for 6,000 years, and that “it is not an easy thing to find, whether it’s during the Crusades […] I can’t think of anywhere that’s had that much done to it.”
However, he stressed that “good things are never easy. And anyone who is objecting to what almost the whole world sees as the solution cannot be right. So, you know, again, that’s why I’m not optimistic, because we have a lot of problems along the way.”
Al Saud asserted that “there’s no other solution” other than a two-state solution.
„I’ve helped him [el-Sisi] a lot and I hope he’ll help us. I think he’ll do it [take in Palestinians] and the king of Jordan will do it too,“ he added.
In an interview with Israeli Army Radio, Eiland said that Israel‘s opening of the Netzarim corridor meant it has lost leverage over Hamas.
Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians in Gaza are returning home in the north of the strip as part of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. It’s the first time Palestinians can return to see what remains of where they used to live in the north.
Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are returning as part of a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel. They are moving on foot along the Al-Rashid coastal road. For the first time since the early weeks of the 15-month war, Israeli military forces are allowing them to cross the Netzarim corridor.
A Palestinian girl returning to north Gaza holds a sign that reads: „We have grown old waiting for this historic moment“ (MEE/Ahmed Aziz)
According to the Gaza health ministry, around 650,000 displaced people in the central and southern Gaza Strip will return to their homes in the north of the enclave.
(11 hours ago)
The IDF has begun withdrawing troops from the western part of the Netzarim Corridor that bisects the Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported early Monday morning, citing Palestinian reports.
Well that didn’t take long.
Trump has built his political career around being unapologetically pro-Israel. On his larger vision for Gaza, Trump said he had call earlier in the day with King Abdullah II of Jordan and would speak Sunday with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt.
“I’d like Egypt to take people,” Trump said. “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing and say, ‘You know, it’s over.’”
Protests calling for a hostage deal, against Netanyahu’s government and for the end of the war, took place on Saturday evening, Jan 25, in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Beer Sheva, Raanana, Ramat Hasharon, Herzliya, Carmiel, Petach Tikva, Nahariya, Umm el-Fahm and dozens of other locations across the country.
During the protests, activists and relatives of hostages hailing the week-old ceasefire that has so far seen the release of seven female hostages and urging the government to keep the ceasefire going through its second phase.
(…)
“End this fucking war”, protesters again the war in Gaza at Hemed Junction near Jerusalem, January 25, 2025 (Photo: Black Flag Movement)
A drone view shows Palestinians waiting to be allowed to return to their homes in northern Gaza on 26 January 2025
(January 15, 2025)
7. Return of unarmed internally displaced (Netzarim Corridor):
a. The return is agreed based on the 27 May 2024 agreement section 3-a and 3-b.
b. On day 7, the internally displaced pedestrians will be allowed to return north, without carrying arms and without inspection via Rashid street. On day 22, they will be allowed to return north from the Salahudin street as well, without inspection.
C. On day 7, vehicles and any non-pedestrian traffic will be allowed to return north of Netzarim corridor after vehicle inspection which will be performed by a private company which will be determined by the mediators in sync with the Israeli side, based on an agreed upon mechanism.
Crowds of Palestinians have gathered near the Netzarim Corridor, a crossing point created by the Israeli army that separates north and south Gaza, in hopes of eventually returning to the north.
Although they are expected to be allowed through on Sunday, the Israeli army has accused Hamas of violating the terms of the ceasefire and said it will not open the corridor.
Four female Israeli soldiers held hostage by Hamas since the October 7, 2023 attacks crossed into Israeli territory from Gaza on Saturday, the military said, in the second such handover since a ceasefire began in the Palestinian enclave last weekend. Israel later freed 200 Palestinian prisoners as thousands gathered in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah to celebrate the arrival of buses carrying the detainees.
The Israeli security cabinet authorized the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) late Thursday to remain in some areas of southern Lebanon past the 60-day withdrawal deadline set to expire on Sunday. Under the terms of the Israel-Hezbollah cease-fire agreement approved last November, both sides must fully remove all of their troops from the region by Jan. 26 to reinstate the borders laid out in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701.
The White House is calling for Israeli troops to be allowed to remain in Lebanon past the expiration date of a cease-fire next week, giving Israel more time to complete its mission but heightening the risks that the truce will unravel altogether.
Doctors Against Genocide said Israel denied exit to 11 American doctors and nurses from Gaza and called on the US government, the international community and humanitarian organisations to secure their safe evacuation in a statement.
The doctors‘ mission was authorised by Israeli authorities on 9 January 2024, with plans for their safe departure on 22 January 2025, the group said. However, Israeli authorities have since denied their requests to move south, preventing them from leaving northern Gaza.
Witkoff addressed the possibility of Arab nations like Saudi Arabia joining an alliance with Israel: “Normalization is an amazing opportunity for the region. It’s basically the beginning of the end of war.”
He noted that other countries like Qatar could join the Abraham Accords if the Saudis lead the way. “First, we needed the hopeful moment, and I’d like to think that we’ve achieved that, and we’ll build on that. Then on top of that, we needed to show people that we could stop the violence and that we could have conversation and dialogue.”
(January 22, 2025)
„I think this is an inflection point,“ Witkoff said on „America‘s Newsroom,“ Wednesday.
„I think you could get everybody on board in that region. I think there‘s a new sense of leadership over there. Qatar was enormously helpful in this. Sheikh Mohammed, plenty of his communication skills with Hamas were indispensable here, so I think the UAE is already a part of it. Egypt was very helpful to us in these endeavors.“
„I think we have the opportunity to get everybody bought in to a better future for the region – more opportunity, more hope,“ he added.
The envoy also discussed the broader implications of peacebuilding efforts in the region, particularly the potential expansion of the Abraham Accords. These agreements, initiated during Trump’s first term, have already seen Israel normalise relations with several Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates.
“Hasn’t the Israeli army had enough of our blood and the atrocities they committed for 15 months?” Hanan asked.
Then, she thought of her future. With her husband and two of her children ripped away from her, and with tears coming down her face, she asked: “What’s left?”
Israel’s prison service said early on Monday that 90 Palestinian prisoners have been released as part of the hostages for prisoners swap deal between Israel and Hamas. Video showed people gathered around a bus carrying freed Palestinian prisoners celebrating their release
On January 20, 2025, Palestinians gathered in the streets near Ramallah to welcome freed prisoners returning from Israeli jails as part of the ongoing ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The release, which included 69 women and 21 teenage boys, came after a convoy of buses carrying the prisoners passed through the streets.
Sixty two women were freed, of whom one is a minor. An additional 28 men were released, including eight minors.
Under the first phase of the prisoner exchange deal, each female Israeli civilian captive will be exchanged for 30 Palestinian women and children.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) has received the names of the 90 Palestinian prisoners to be released today. Of these, 78 are from the occupied West Bank and 12 are from Jerusalem.
Hamas hands over three Israeli hostages to the Red Cross as part of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
Watch as Al Jazeera live broadcast the tense moment the armed wing of Hamas handed over three Israeli female captives to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza City.
(30 min ago)
We’re receiving reports that the Red Cross delegation that entered Ofer Prison is verifying the identity of Palestinian prisoners set to be released as part of the ceasefire agreement.
Hostages Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, and Doron Steinbrecher are in the hands of IDF troops in the Gaza Strip.
Three Israeli hostages are expected to be released after a Gaza ceasefire deal was reached following a delay.
Israel is to release 1,904 Palestinian prisoners in the first phase.
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