Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened that the Palestinian Hamas movement will pay for violating the terms of the agreement and not returning the body of the mother of two dead children in Gaza, giving instead the body of an unknown resident of the enclave.
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Earlier on Thursday, Hamas handed over to the Israeli side the bodies of four hostages who died in captivity. The movement claimed that the bodies belong to Shiri, Ariel, Kfir Bibas and Oded Lifshits. On the same day, Israeli forensic experts concluded that none of the bodies belonged to Shiri Bibas, moreover, experts say that it does not match any of the remaining hostages.
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“In their indescribable cynicism, they (the Hamas fighters) did not even allow Shiri to be near their little ones, these angels. Instead, they returned the body of an unknown Gazan woman in a coffin.… We guarantee that Hamas will pay the full price for this cruel and despicable violation of the agreement,” the Israeli prime minister said.
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On Thursday, the Hamas movement returned to Israel the four hostages who died in captivity. It was claimed that the bodies belonged to an elderly Israeli, Oded Lifshitz, a citizen, Shiri Bibas, and her two young children, Ariel and Kfir. Israeli forensic experts identified the bodies of Kfir, Ariel and Oded, but were unable to confirm that the fourth body belonged to Shiri Bibas. The Israel Defense Forces press service reported that the body did not match any of the remaining hostages and could not be identified in any way.
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Since the outbreak of hostilities in October 2023, two red-haired children who were captured and taken to the Gaza Strip by Hamas fighters have become a symbol of the struggle for the release of all hostages. Ariel was four years old at the time of the abduction, and his brother Kfir was only 9 months old. After the identification of their bodies by forensic experts, the IDF press service reported that the children were killed in captivity in November 2023. According to official information, Hamas is currently holding 70 hostages, almost half of whom have been declared dead.
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On October 7, 2023, Israel was subjected to an unprecedented rocket attack from the Gaza Strip.
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After that, the militants of the Palestinian Hamas movement entered the border areas, opened fire on military and civilians, and took more than 200 hostages. According to the authorities, about 1,2 thousand people died on the Israeli side. In response, the Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Iron Swords, which includes attacks on civilian targets, and announced a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip: supplies of water, electricity, fuel, food and medicine were stopped.
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In 15 months, the fighting has claimed the lives of 46,000 Palestinians and about 1,500 Israelis, spread to Lebanon and Yemen, and provoked an exchange of rocket attacks between Israel and Iran. A ceasefire has been in effect in the Gaza Strip since January 19 as part of an agreement reached between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement on the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.
